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STUDIES 
IN SPIRITISM 



STUDIES 
IN SPIRITISM 



BY 



AMY E. TANNER, Ph.D. 




WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 

G. STANLEY HALL, Ph.D., LL.D. 



NEW YORK AND LONDON 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1910 



r\0* 



"*- 



Copyright, 1910, by 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 



Published, September, 1910 



©CI.A2719 IS 



PREFACE 



When I entered upon the study of the work of the 
Psychical Research Society it was in my capacity of special 
assistant to Dr. Gr. Stanley Hall in his investigation of Spir- 
itism, and not with the expectation of publishing anything 
of my own. But as the work progressed, and as it became 
evident that Dr. Hall's other writings and duties would 
make it impossible for him to publish anything on this 
subject for some time to come, it seemed best that I should 
take the work in hand myself, because now seems to be 
the psychological moment to present the reverse side of the 
case of Spiritism. Though my name is appended to the 
book, and though I am responsible alone for my opinions, 
I lie, therefore, under the greatest obligations to Dr. Hall, 
not only for his encouragement, but for the opportunity 
to have sittings with Mrs. Piper, and for the unpublished 
manuscripts of his which have been at my disposal, to say 
nothing of the extensive citations from his notes which ap- 
pear in the book, and of his Introduction. 

I wish also to express my sense of obligation to Mr. G. 
B. Dorr, who arranges Mrs. Piper's sittings for her, and 
to Mrs. Piper herself for their unfailing courtesy and their 
desire that Dr. Hall and I should have a free hand with 
the controls. The fact that my findings are unfavourable 

v 



PREFACE 

to the claims of the controls, and are at variance with Mrs. 
Piper's own belief and that of many of the members of the 
Society for Psychical Research, only deepens my apprecia- 
tion of their willingness to give me the opportunity to make 
such criticisms after a first-hand study of the case. How- 
ever much I must criticise the methods and conclusions of 
members of the Society, I wish to go on record as a hearty 
admirer of their spirit of fair play and frankness. 

A few words as to my own personal attitude while 
making this study also seem in place here for various rea- 
sons. Nearly all of the published accounts of the work of 
the Society for Psychical Research have tended to empha- 
sise the evidence in favour of supposedly supernormal forces, 
and have largely or wholly ignored the weaknesses in the 
evidence. So numerous have these writings become of late, 
and so influential are some of the names appended to them, 
that through constant repetition that certain theories are 
true even well-informed readers are impressed. This was 
certainly the effect upon me. Before beginning the present 
study I had read some of the original Proceedings, but far 
more of the popular accounts, and had gradually come to 
think that probably telepathy was true, and perhaps spirit 
communication. 

I did not therefore enter upon my work with any spirit 
of antagonism, but rather in a spirit of doubt that inclined 
toward belief. I was inclined to think that I should finish 
the work a believer at least in telepathy. So far is this 
from being the case that the more I have read and seen of 
such experiences, the more amazing has it come to seem 
that two theories like telepathy and spirit communication, 
which are unsupported by any valid evidence, should have 

vi 



PREFACE 

obtained credence to-day; and the more incomprehensible 
has it come to be that men should be willing to stake their 
professional reputations upon the inaccuracies and rubbish 
that pass for " scientific " facts in these matters. It is 
time that the " marsh of feebleness," to which Professor 
James refers, should become as well known to the general 
public as the " stream of veridicality " that has under- 
mined science for him. A stream lost in a marsh is a very 
different thing from a flood inundating a land and tearing 
down all the old landmarks, and, far from rising in the 
mountains or descending from the clouds, it is more likely 
to be merely the drainage of the lowest part of the marsh. 

Amy E. Tanner. 
June 23, 1910. 



CONTENTS 



PAGES 

Introduction. By G. Stanley Hall xv 

Explanation op Terms xxxv 

CHAPTER I 

INTRODUCTION: SCOPE AND STANDPOINT OF THE STUDY 

Polemical status of Spiritism — Attitude of scientists — Of Psychic- 
al Researchers and their Committee — Their approved medi- 
ums — The ideal investigator — The average sitter — Attitude 
of the medium — Sources of this study .... 1-8 

CHAPTER II 

MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY, PERSONALITY, AND TRANCE-STATE 

Early interviews of Drs. James and Hodgson — Tests of Mrs. Pi- 
per's honesty — Her first visit to England — Her relations to 
Psychical Researchers — Compensation for her sittings — Her 
belief in her powers — Her isolation — Church relations — Type 
of mind — Susceptibility to music and pictures — Entrance to 
trance — Emergence from it — Length of trance — Variations 
in pulse and breathing in trance — Condition of sense organs 
— Contradictory results with tests of hand — Relations of con- 
trol to normal Mrs. Piper — Jung-Freud tests . . . 9-25 

CHAPTER III 

EARLY TRANCES AND TRANCE PERSONALITIES 

Mrs. Piper's physical condition — Her first trance — Phinuit and 
Dr. Cocke — Phinuit's part in the trance — George Pelham — 
— Moses and the Imperator group — The Hodgson control — 
Diminishing value of the sittings — Characteristics of each 
group of controls — Effects of expectation and suggestion on 
them — Appeal to the test message — Its characteristics — 
Proof of personal identity — Records of sittings — Their omis- 
sions — Nonsense — Fishing — Possibilities of suggestion . 26^-46 

ix 



CONTENTS 
CHAPTER IV 

TEST MESSAGES 

PAGES 

Sealed-envelope tests — Test messages in the Lodge sittings — In 

Hodgson sittings previous to Nov., 1891— From 1891-1897 . 47-71 

CHAPTER V 

TEST MESSAGES (Continued) 

In Hyslop sittings — Hyslop' s forced interpretations — Newbold 
sittings, with translation of Greek — Sittings with Hodgson 
control 72-93 

CHAPTER VI 

OPINIONS OF SITTERS 

Favourable opinions: Lodge, Myers, Hodgson, Hyslop, constant 
sitters — Intermediate: Johnson, the Sidgwicks, Verrall, Nor- 
ton, Savage, James, Leaf, Carrington, Newbold, etal. — Un- 
favourable: G. H. Darwin, Macalister, Weir Mitchell, Bald- 
win, Trowbridge, Richet, Lang, Podmore, Hall, et al. . 94-100 

CHAPTER VII 

CROSS CORRESPONDENCES: MRS. HOLLAND, MRS. VERRALL 

The method and its originators — Two kinds of references — Proof 
of their being cross references — Its defects — Illustrations of 
cross references: sealed envelope and text, cooperation, atti- 
tude of controls, description of Mrs. Verrall, music notes, 
description of Mrs. Holland's surroundings, of Mrs. Verrall's 
surroundings, Agamemnon, Dr. Sidgwick, Roden Noel, 
Marseilles and Virgil, Fawcett, Ave Roma Immortalis, owl, 
references to Mrs. Archdale and Thompson, sphere and 
spear, fir tree, bugle and crown — Cross references with Mrs. 
Forbes, the Symposium, Harriet de Vim, Hove, et al. . 101-127 

CHAPTER VIII 

CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

The method and its defects — Illustrations: laurel wreath, "autos 
ouranos akumon," The Cup, Hercules Furens — Ear-marked 

x 



CONTENTS 

PAGES 

references — Death — Hope, star, and Browning — Summary of 
method and its defects — Verrall sittings — Cross correspond- 
ences between normal people — Time limits — Indiscriminate 
cross references — Evasions, etc., of control . . . 128-151 

CHAPTER IX 

THE LATIN MESSAGE 

Drafts of the message— Giving it to the control — Its complication 
with cross references, especially "Hope, star, and Browning" 
— Mr. Piddington's suggestions to the control — Mrs. Sidg- 
wick's suggestions — Final outcome 152-165 

CHAPTER X 

SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: FIRST SITTING 

Aim and method — Introduction to Mrs. Piper — Dr. Hall's dis- 
cussion with Hodgson control about fictitious niece, Bessie — 
With Mr. Clark — Diagnosis of health — Subliminal — Com- 
ments on sitting by Dr. Hall : Multiplication of personalities, 
generalities, malapropos references, ease with which spirits 
come, credulity of control, the fictitious Bessie, the diagnosis, 
emergence from trance, interpretation of record . . 166-185 

CHAPTER XI 

SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: SECOND SITTING 

Testing the control : useless tests — Accounting for content — Ad- 
vantage to control of setting a problem — Sympathetic attitude 
to control — Relations of control to normal, with Jung-Freud 
tests — Content of second sitting : Jung-Freud tests to control, 
the fictitious Borst and Bessie — Jung-Freud tests with Mrs. 
Piper — Pulse and breathing in trance .... 186-200 

CHAPTER XII 

SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: THIRD SITTING 

Discussion with Mr. Dorr: Answers worked up by control, use of 
stenographer in sittings, awakening Mrs. Piper from trance, 
use of fraud with controls, making of appointments, Hodg- 
son's personal bias toward belief — Discussion with Mrs. 
Piper: belief in immortality, her reading, her attitude to- 

XI 



CONTENTS 

PAGES 

wards controls, her premonitions, dreams, etc., entrance to 
trance, eye and ear mindedness, memory of trance, early 
trance states and health — Content of sitting: the fictitious 
Bessie, attempt to convince Hodgson of being Borst, and of 
knowing about Mrs. Piper, Hodgson 's anger at being de- 
ceived — Comments: why certain "spirits" appear — Train- 
ing a "spirit" to belief in itself 201-220 

CHAPTER XIII 

SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: FOURTH SITTING 

Discussion with Mrs. Piper: Her attitude towards the trance — Its 
early conditions — Phinuit — Her impulsiveness — Value of 
belief in sitter — Danger if medium is unbalanced — Future 
failure of "light" — Attempt to hypnotise her — Content of 
sitting: Hodgson's knowledge of earthly surroundings — How 
he summons spirits — Uncle Robert — Dr. Tanner's father — 
Relations of control to Mrs. Piper 221-234 

CHAPTER XIV 

SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: FIFTH SITTING 

Tests of Mrs. Piper in trance: Skin, with esthesiometer and algom- 
eter — Smell, with camphor and ether — Taste, with salt, sugar, 
and camphor — Attempts to persuade control to make Mrs. 
Piper move and speak — Tests of sight and hearing . . 235-245 

CHAPTER XV 

SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: SIXTH SITTING 

After-effects of previous tests — Mrs. Piper's attitude — Second 
attempt at hypnosis — Content of trance: Questioning 
Rector — Explanation of experiments to Hodgson and of his 
failures to meet the tests — His evasion .... 246-258 

CHAPTER XVI 

CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

Possibility of reducing control to secondary personality — Mrs. 
Piper's own sense of being unusual — Depth of trance — 
Crudity of handwriting — Possible meanings of script — 
Sensitiveness of ear — Lack of stenographic records and possi- 

xii 






CONTENTS 

PAGES 

bility of forgotten suggestions — Amount of mental activity of 
control — Hypothesis of supernormal agencies for unexplained 
events — Psychic activity between sittings — Relation of sub- 
conscious to normal self — "Psycho-keksids" . . .259-273 

CHAPTER XVII 

THE MEDIUM IN GERM 

Early surroundings — Training — First visit to a medium — Appear- 
ance of visions — Formation of a circle of spirit friends — 
Mission of this girl — Sittings at the university — Vivid inci- 
dents given and their fixed character — Suggestibility in other 
ways — Personal motive of the medium — Influence of the 
repressed desire — Attainment of ecstasy in another case — Its 
relation to efficiency 274-285 

CHAPTER XVIII 

THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

First attempts at automatic writing — Sensations while writing — 
Aphorisms, nonsense, quotations and verse in writing — Sig- 
natures — Verifiable statements — Defects in evidence — Pro- 
portion of verified to non-evidential statements . . 286-300 

CHAPTER XIX 

THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

Similarity to secondary personality : Nervous shocks and relation 
to trance — Voluntary entrance to trance — Suggestibility as 
shown in various groups of controls, appearance, and charac- 
teristics — Involuntary suggestions from sitters through 
voice — Hasty interpretations of messages — Mental character- 
istics of control similar to secondary personality — Stages in 
development of secondary personalities — Summary of Piper 
controls — Evidential value of test messages — Imperfect 
record — Spontaneous images — Proportion of tests to non- 
evidential messages 301-320 

CHAPTER XX 

TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA: SPONTANEOUS AND 
EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE 

Definition and inclusiveness of telepathy — Richet's experiment 
in thought-transference, and defects — Transference of num- 

xiii 



CONTENTS 

PAGES 

bers and diagrams and defects — Hyperesthesia — Similarity of 
thought — Self-consciousness — Card experiments by Richet, 
Verrall, and Guthrie — Telepathy at a distance — Other card 
experiments by Sidgwicks and Miss Johnson — Defects — Illu- 
sions of memory as shown by Davey and Stern — Effect of 
lapse of time — Cases of telepathy recorded within one 
week 321-347 

CHAPTER XXI 

TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA; A CENSUS OF 
HALLUCINATIONS 

Data obtained — Calculus of probabilities — Thirty test cases — 
Time elapsing between the hallucination and the recording it 
— Cases recorded within one year : collective hallucinations — 
Haunted houses — Summary of Committee's report — Criti- 
cism of evidence — Natural tendency to believe in images — 
Difficulty in discovering defects in memory — Too great faith 
in narrators — Mere numbers not evidential — Data true but$ 
explicable otherwise — Difficulty in theory of thought trans- 
ference without sense organs — Vaschide's experiments and 
conclusions to numerous similarities in thought between 
people 348-376 

CHAPTER XXII 

CONCLUSION 

What is the "simpler hypothesis"? — New interpretations of old 
data — Control of conditions of thought coincident with loss 
of its mysterious nature — Infinite complexity of psychical 
and neural processes — Personal desire for immortality 
heightened by limitations of self — Illustrated by Dark Ages — 
By Rise of Spiritism in this country — By personal losses, 
failure, illness, etc. — Effect of sittings upon sitter — Lack 
in modern life that Spiritism satisfies — Possible defects in 
Protestant Church 377-389 

Appendix 390-405 

Bibliography 406-408 



XIV 



INTRODUCTION 



Spiritualists abounded where my boyhood was passed, 
and their cult had such fascination for me that furtively 
and despite parental wishes I early became familiar with 
table-tipping and levitation, slate-writing, inspirational 
speaking, and all the phenomena of seances, and frequented 
the Lake Pleasant camp-meetings near by where this sect 
assembled in large numbers for weeks every summer. 
Later, I paid for private sittings with Slade, Foster, and 
other once-famous mediums. As a student in Germany I 
formed the acquaintance of, and often conversed with, Z611- 
ner, the great Leipsic astronomer, and heard him lecture 
in the university on the physical phenomena of Spiritism 
to the disgust of some of his colleagues. I repeatedly also 
called on Prof. Theodor Fechner near by, who was a mystic 
and credulous, holding that plants and planets were both 
besouled, and who, in his old age, publicly expressed his 
belief in the ghostly origin of Slade 's slate writing. These 
two aged men, with the venerable Professor Weber, formed 
an academic trio, whose late conversion to this creed was 
the theme of much discussion by their associates, who 
deemed it an academic scandal. Later, at the Johns Hop- 
kins University, in the wave of interest started by the Sey- 
bert Commission and the English Psychic Research Society, 
with the late President Gilman and my colleague, Simon 
Newcomb, I visited every medium who advertised in Phil- 
adelphia, and later, when Dr. Gilman had withdrawn, Pro- 
fessor Newcomb and I made similar rounds in New York. 

xv 



INTRODUCTION 

I alone persisted and visited also those in Boston. The first 
fifteen years of the Proceedings of the English Society I 
reviewed at length in my journal. I mention these personal 
experiences to show that spiritistic phenomena are not new 
to me, and also that my interest was serious enough to 
prompt all this pains which, had I been fully convinced 
either way, I should never have had interest enough to take. 
I have also, as years went by, passed through every stage 
from pretty complete boyish credulity to no less prepon- 
derating adult disbelief. As a youth I argued for, and in 
maturity against, spiritistic claims, until I have long felt 
a strange combination of aversion from and attraction to 
all the works and ways of believers. The attraction is en- 
tirely due to the conviction that there is something here 
of great moment that psychology has not yet fathomed, 
and the revulsion is toward the recrudescence in this cult of 
a savage superstition which belongs more to the troglodyte 
age than to our own. Seriously to investigate the problem 
whether discarnate ghosts can suspend any of the laws of 
matter seems to me not only bad form for any and every 
scientific man, but an indication of a strange psychic rudi- 
ment in their makeup that ought to be outgrown like the 
prenatal tail or the gill slits. There is in my opinion not 
even a prima facie case for supermundane intervention of 
this sort, but always only an interesting constellation of 
psychic complexes. The difference between the method and 
the spirit of the Psychic Researchers, whose work is moti- 
vated by a desire to determine whether souls exist inde- 
pendently of the body and act upon or can control it, and 
the attitude of science is identical with the difference be- 
tween those who study dreams to see whether they come 
true and those who study them as physiologists, psycholo- 
gists and the Freudians do — to learn their mechanism and 
their real cause and meaning. With this attitude I refused, 
not without some resentment, an invitation to assist at the 
late Palladino seances in New York, because she made- 

xvi 



INTRODUCTION 

all the essential conditions instead of allowing the investi- 
gators to do so, and this, to my mind, was sufficient to jus- 
tify the presumption that she was fraudulent. Moreover, I 
have purchased considerable sleight-of-hand apparatus and 
bought a small kit of tricks, taken lessons of Yost, Her- 
mann, and others, and given various amateur performances 
in my own house, and despite the fact that I always tell 
in the end how everything is done I have been repeatedly 
acclaimed as a medium myself by believers. One American 
member of, and literary contributor to, the English Psychic 
Research Society for whom I did the slate-writing trick in 
two ways, explaining afterward both the flap and the in- 
visible ink (brought out by hydrochloric-acid gas injected 
through a hypodermic needle from a flesh-coloured capsule 
that was palmed), told me frankly that he thought I really 
did it all with the aid of spirits, but that I deemed it more 
becoming a professor to give a difficult scientific explanation 
than to acknowledge the easier help of spirits. Believers in 
material phenomena are in my experience usually simple- 
minded, honest, and ultra gullible, while most mediums in 
this field seem to me clever charlatans of a vulgar and often 
avaricious type, and perhaps with a morbid passion for 
deception. In my view, they are almost all not only dis- 
honest from the start, but the real explanation of their suc- 
cess is to be chiefly found in the abnormal development of 
an inveterate inborn propensity to lie and mislead, which 
gives them a titillating sense of superiority on the one hand, 
and on the other the overpowering will to believe on the 
part of the faithful who accept any suggestion and balk at 
no absurdity. 

Credence in any of these phenomena by cultivated aca- 
demic minds, or even the admission that there is an open 
question, presents another difficult problem. Their attitude 
I believe due partly to a dualistic philosophy that assumes 
two different world-orders, and holds that the one may in- 
terfere at certain points with the other, and partly to an 
2 xvii 



INTRODUCTION 

inveterate lust for evidence of the independent post-mortem 
existence of souls. The third factor in their case is found 
in the utter inadequacy of current psychology in dealing 
with the unconscious, and a gross underestimation of its 
range and scope in all our daily lives. Mind, to it, is con- 
sciousness, and every eruption from the unconscious it re- 
gards as of ghostly origin, because it lacks all conception of 
the intricacy and complexity of the subliminal psychic 
processes of which introspection gives no glimmer or ink- 
ling. These false teachings together have caused endless 
futile labour, and have misled many ingenuous souls be- 
cause the problems they suggest are surds. 

With Mrs. Piper and the psychic phenomena of Spir- 
itism the case is very different. She is without question 
the most eminent American medium in this field. For years 
she has been the more or less private oracle of one of our 
leading and very influential psychologists. She has been in- 
vestigated for a quarter of a century by many of the keenest 
men of science in England and here, and never convicted of 
fraud, and her sittings have been reported and discussed 
by scores if not hundreds of writers. She is a modest, ma- 
tronly woman, shunning newspaper curiosity, quietly sup- 
porting her daughters by the twenty dollars she receives 
per seance, and the majority of her clients are sincere be- 
lievers who wish information beyond their reach. I once 
visited her more than twenty years ago with Professor 
James and was mystified, and several times afterward wrote 
Hodgson, who kept her dates, asking for sessions, only to 
be told that all her available time and strength were monop- 
olised by the Psychic Researchers, and that a man of un- 
certain purposes outside their circle might mar the quality 
of her work. It was therefore with much satisfaction that 
on writing Mr. George Dorr, who is in a sense her manager, 
I was given three sessions, for which I paid, and three more 
at his expense, while at the latter Dr. Tanner and myself 
were left alone with the medium. Mr. Dorr's kindness and 

xviii 



INTRODUCTION 

candor deserve our hearty thanks. Of the details of each 
of our six sessions this volume contains a full account. The 
author and myself reached conclusions that are in substan- 
tial agreement. For one, I am satisfied and shall probably 
never want more sittings. 

Mrs. Piper in her trances seems to sleep profoundly 
with deep, slow, stertorous breathing, and she takes less 
time to go to sleep than to waken, reversing thus the order 
of slow to sleep and quick to wake. This impresses the sit- 
ter that she is almost as much out of the game in this state 
as if she were dead. Hence, no one feels in danger of 
disturbing slumbers so profound, and sitters can move about 
and converse freely, at least in low tones. We were not 
only assured that we could, but almost invited to do so, at 
least by Mr. Dorr. This we soon came to do naturally, first 
whispering and then speaking, so that we sitters felt that 
we were alone with Hodgson's spirit. The latter was usu- 
ally reached by taking Mrs. Piper's hand, placing the 
palm close to the mouth and speaking loudly, and I was 
often asked to repeat as if I were on a long-distance tele- 
phone. Her writing hand is thus also at the same time the 
ear of her control, and its threshold is high and kept so. 
Meanwhile, her ear is awake and alert. On this the record 
gives abundant evidence, and our observations in the record 
made this yet more certain. If her hand actually hears, we 
have at the outset an astounding miracle. No deaf person 
ever developed such a manual function. Not only does her 
ear receive all the messages shouted into the hand, but it is 
keenly aware of everything audible. The noises on the 
streets, the rustle of clothing, the sitter's position, and every 
noise or motion, and our conversation, too, was often reacted 
to. Here then is a wide and copious margin in which sug- 
gestion can work. Never in our own or in other Piper sit- 
tings was any full record kept of what her interlocutors 
said. Still less have involuntary exclamations, inflections, 
stresses, etc., been noted, and even the full and exact form 

xix 



INTRODUCTION 

of questions is rarely, if ever, kept, while the presence of a 
stenographer which we proposed was objected to. Thus, 
unlimited suggestions are unconsciously ever being given 
off to be caught and given back or reacted to in surprising 
ways. If this method be a conscious invention on her part 
it shows great cleverness and originality, and if it be a 
method unconsciously drifted into, its great effectiveness 
could in fact be scientifically evaluated only by pro- 
longed experiments in which a normal person should simu- 
late her very peculiar kind of sleep. In fact, it often 
seemed that only her eyes were out of the game, and all 
her mental and emotional powers were very wide awake. A 
little practice convinced me that it is not hard to feign all 
this, and yet I am by no means convinced that she acted her 
sleep-dream, although that this could be done with a success 
quite equal to her own I have no shadow of doubt. If this 
is the case she is, of course, fraudulent, but if some of her 
faculties are really sleeping it is a unique and interesting 
case of somno-scripticism as her former practice of speak- 
ing instead of writing was of somno-verbalism, for both are 
species of the same genus of somnambulism. That Mrs. 
Piper- Hodgson's soul is awake and normal, our last sittings 
gave abundant evidence when she seemed to quite fall out 
of the Hodgson role and became angry. That the self -same 
hand that slapped me on the back, as it was assumed Hodg- 
son might have done, pounded the table, wielded the pencil, 
arranged the paper as Hodgson's hand, and then clutched 
his sweater and necktie, as Mrs. Piper's hand (as I think 
we must infer), in order to reinforce her own waning pow- 
ers (although this may be open to another interpretation), 
was found to be insensitive to partial pain is not so strange, 
since analgesia is often isolated in disease from other dermal 
sensations ; but that the hand discriminated compass points 
so faintly implies a rare type of dissociation. 

Again, writing was an improvement upon her former 
oral mode of utterance in the interests of ambiguity, for 

xx 






INTRODUCTION 

not a few words and phrases were illegible and admit of 
several interpretations, for the Hodgson chirography is ex- 
ecrable and often entirely illegible and in general hard to 
make out after it has been cooled by even a short lapse of 
time. 

As to the identity of Hodgson, the so-called control, he 
surely was not all there, and what was present of him, if 
anything, was not only fragmentary but incredibly stupid, 
oblivious, and changed. Although I never met him in the 
flesh, yet in these sessions he always addressed me in the 
most familiar manner, had many totally false memories of 
former interviews with me and of discussions which never 
took place, and in a word seemed to feel just as intimate 
with me as Mrs. Piper in her normal state thought he used 
to. He recollected also everything that I pretended had 
passed between us. Had I really known him and he had 
forgotten or cut me that might have been explained, though 
perhaps at some sacrifice of my amour propre, but this 
false recognition and spirit of camaraderie throughout was 
baffling. Perhaps when living he meant to have made my 
acquaintance, and as a ghost mistook the will for the deed. 
Had I been very great and powerful, and he foolishly vain 
and false, he might have pretended to have been honoured 
by my acquaintance in order to show off before Mrs. Piper, 
but this hypothesis is seamy, for she was sleeping and did 
not know and could not remember, and he must have known 
that she could not be impressed. It may be that he hu- 
moured me in my deceit to see how far I would go, and 
let me fill full the measure of my turpitude of ruse and 
deception, but if so, why the flaming anger when I confessed 
my strategy ? Again, he may have mistaken me for some 
one else, although it must have been some other enough like 
me to be almost my double, and I can think of no one who 
would fill this role. Or it may be he has somehow been in- 
timate with me since his death, although without my knowl- 
edge, and only blundered in dating his acquaintance before 

xxi 



INTRODUCTION 

instead of after his translation, and in assuming that be- 
cause he knew me I must know him. It may be that spir- 
its think in genera, and because I was a psychologist and 
he knew so many others of my trade he assumed that he 
must have known me, and accepted my suggestion that he 
had done so because he could not remember all his psycho- 
logical acquaintances for sure. Or, perhaps, as people long 
and far absent greet neighbours they only knew of as if they 
were personal friends I, being the first he met after making 
his earthly landfall, seemed near by contrast with the vast 
distance that yawned between Mrs. Piper's sitting room 
and his celestial environment. 

On the other hand his memory was full of gaps. He 
had forgotten the private drawing medium who once vis- 
ited me and wanted to be investigated, but whom I had sent 
with a note to Hodgson, who printed his weird pictures and 
concerning whom we had some correspondence. Again, the 
Watseka wonder, to the study of whom he once gave much 
time and energy the results of which he printed, he could 
barely recall. All our other questions concerning, or allu- 
sions to, his past life were answered only in platitudes or 
evaded. Would Hodgson, if living, have accepted such a 
tatterdemalion ghost of himself, and would he not have pre- 
ferred death to such a pitiful prolongation of his person- 
ality? Indeed, is it not a most plausible hypothesis that 
his soul is now in process of dissolution, and has already 
reached an advanced stage of senile decrepitude, not to 
say dementia? There are now several eminent religious 
writers who practically accept the view long ago expressed 
in Plato 's ' ' Phaedo ' ' that the soul survives after death only 
for a period, and is slowly blown away or dissolved, and so 
perhaps Hodgson is far advanced toward a second death. 
If so, is it not cruelty to spirits to drag him back to make 
such a pitiful exhibition of his last stages? But against 
this hypothesis stands his affectation of cheeriness that sug- 
gests the effervescence of healthful animal spirits and his 

xxii 



INTRODUCTION 

apparent willingness to be recalled from his bourne. This 
combination of failing powers with euphoria is rare, save 
in general paresis, and the Hodgson ghost in many re- 
spects rather well fits this paradigm. 

Now, it would be strange indeed if such an infirm ghost 
could not be bluffed out of existence or be made to confess 
himself some one else, as we are convinced that this sec- 
ondary personality or control could have been had we per- 
sisted. But I am not clear whether we have a right to 
put ever so doddering ghosts out of existence, especially 
if they are profitable to those who harbour them. He surely 
cut a sorry figure with us. He accepted each of the ficti- 
tious personages we invented. The figments of our fancy 
were quite as real for him as his own friends or historic 
personages, showing that he had no criterion for distin- 
guishing imagination from facts, but accepted every sug- 
gestion as true. He could thus be fooled and imposed upon 
to the very top of our bent. His naive gullibility and utter 
absence of critical discrimination were tempting. Thus we 
enjoyed some of the grim satisfaction of revenge upon the 
spirit world, the denizens of which have from time im- 
memorial fooled and misled the sons of men, and it was 
hard not to yield still further to the temptation to feed 
fat this ancient grudge. But let us be wary, for perhaps 
all this is the spirits' noblesse oblige. We are not well 
informed as to the standards of etiquette or deportment 
in the other world. Its people seem to us courteous, and 
accept our every whim because they wish to set us an ex- 
ample of the unadulterated credulity which they ask us 
to extend to them in turn. They are not critical toward us 
because they do not wish us to be so toward them. If this 
is the good manners of celestial courts, how boorish and 
outlandish our prying scepticism must have seemed ! 

But there are other hypotheses. Perhaps Mrs. Piper 
herself made in her own soul, by a process which we do 
not yet quite understand, a mould in which the control was 

xxiii 



INTRODUCTION 

cast, and Hodgson had to fit himself into this as best he 
could, though the process involved much distortion and 
the amputation of various memories and traits so that he 
was, as it were, dismembered. The soul stuff that composed 
the control was the ipsissimal self of Hodgson, but its form 
was changed as the metal of a cannon might be recast into 
a sewer pipe and drain a swamp instead of sink a ship. 
If so, we shrewdly opine that the mould was cracked and 
too small, as well as distorted, and that we were dealing 
with only a transmuted fragment of Hodgson's ghost. If so, 
where is the remainder of it ? Once more it is possible that, 
unknown to others, Hodgson during life had begun to de- 
velop a partrtioned-off secondary personality, and that this 
parasitic rather than his true self was what we held con- 
verse with. This theory is particularly astute and subtle, 
and could probably be made to harmonise with all the 
facts of the case more completely than any other that the 
wit of man can just at present devise. May I not com- 
mend this hypothesis to Dr. Hyslop as worthy of his apol- 
ogetics ? 

The chief successive Piper controls then certainly have 
a family resemblance, for they are children born of the 
same mental womb. Our fictitious Borst in our humble 
judgment was rather a masterpiece, for he was at least 
meant to be a composite portrait of all the summative series 
of her familiar spirits, the totalisation or the psycho- 
genetic or logical next step in the evolution of her medium- 
ship should she wish to evict Hodgson and adopt a successor 
under any name after finding his like somewhere in his- 
tory. This would maximise her mediumistic powers and 
sustain and prolong their now waning vigour. This would 
be our psychotherapeutic prescription, provided she desires 
to continue double housekeeping. On the other hand, we 
half suspect that in her heart of hearts she would fain be 
done with it all, at least if she could afford it, and settle 
together into her own coherent, symmetrical, comfortable, 

xxiv 






INTRODUCTION 

well-equipped and pleasing wholesome self. Surely it can- 
not make for her mental poise or peace to carry within her 
soul the permanent possibility of such an alien, persistent, 
and unattractive personality. Would that she would give 
the world her own utterly candid biographie intime or a 
confession of her honest womanly reactions to all this busi- 
ness ! For one, I must believe that she could, if she would, 
shed more true light upon her case than has been done 
by all who have so far studied her. That would indeed be 
the ideal consummation of her remarkable career, and to 
that I would most earnestly exhort her in the interests of 
her own mental health and her repute, her prolonged mental 
vigour, her helpfulness to the world, and even her finances. 
Her soul has suffered these many years from some shock, 
or a series of them, the nature of which we can somewhat 
conjecture, and it was partly riven in twain. There are 
cases on record where this has occurred in adolescence, and 
the patients have been healed during senescence. Every- 
thing we know of the psychology of old age indicates that 
it is favourable to such re-fusions and conversely, that they 
are favourable to it. 

I venture the above homely counsel not only be- 
cause all her sitters do and must bear her only good will, 
for she, unlike all other putative communicators with the 
spirits of our dear departed, makes no conditions, but 
allows investigators every practicable freedom. I do so 
also because of the personal regret I should feel if this book 
detracted in any way from her great merit or repute. In- 
deed, we would say to all who must at times consult the spir- 
its — go to hers, far better though we think it would be to let 
them all alone. Again, all her controls have been men, and 
mostly of the bluff, hearty type that would naturally at- 
tract and be attracted by such a woman. That men and, 
still better, women often evolve, more or less unconsciously, 
ideals of the other sex that are in varying degrees counter- 
parts of themselves is no longer questioned. These ideals, 

XXV 



INTRODUCTION 

while perseverating all the way from adolescence to senes- 
cence, maintain the same general type, but are attracted 
and modified by real acquaintances in direct proportion as 
they approximate them, and true affinity in its real psycho- 
logical sense is correspondence with these veiled figures. 
Some who think psychotherapy is in part a love cure in 
the sense that the woman patient must have at least a pla- 
tonic affection for her physician in order to be polarised 
back to health, and is prone to take refuge in illness again 
if he goes out of her life, have made, we must admit, rather 
hazy but extremely stimulating suggestions here. Here, too, 
belongs for men the whole psychology of Madonna ideals. 
A mild neuropathic female medium may, and in recorded 
cases does, in groping toward self-cure, sometimes take 
refuge in ideals of complemental manhood, and come to find 
self-help in occasionally giving them their innings in her 
heart and soul. Thus she gets out of herself. This is a 
sound instinct for psychopaths, who are often exagger- 
atedly selfish, with consequent progressive involution. 
That the partner in this reveried companionship should oc- 
cupy a subconscious chamber of the soul, retired to upon 
occasion, is also as natural and as explicable as are the 
imaginary companions of those children who feel social 
needs that their environment does not satisfy. On this view 
the series of Piper controls from Phinuit to Hodgson first, 
and in their stages of psychic incipiency, gratified the me- 
dium chiefly, and fascinated even when she affected dislike 
to them. Each was an ideally fulfilled dream-wish, and 
became fully impersonated in order to transform the mono- 
logue of her thought currents into dialogue, and only later, 
after she came to yield to her creation with abandon, did 
the control acquire independence and autonomy enough to 
subordinate and then evict her own normal self. The two 
souls came thus to alternate instead of being simultaneous 
voices. Only after this incubation was ended, and the 
nascent personality was fully hatched, fledged, and ma- 

xxvi 



INTRODUCTION 

tured, after possession had supervened and soliloquy had 
passed through colloquy to depersonalisation and suppres- 
sion of the parent soul, did the control furnish the auto- 
matic deliverances that seemed weird enough to conjure 
with and to work the charm of an alien spirit. That sex 
reciprocity played its mighty role in the genesis of this 
case there can to my thought be little doubt, although the 
precise mechanism of the process cannot be detailed, for 
lack of data as to its historic genesis. That this also played 
a major part in the first case reported in Chapter XVII, 
of which I also was cognisant, I at least am convinced. In 
the sublimation and long-circuiting processes of sex, which 
are no longer recognised as such, love works its strangest 
miracles. But if the Freudian contention be correct there 
is absolutely no rupture of connection anywhere possible 
in our psychic life, no confusion even in the gibberings of 
mania, no chaos, but every wildest, maddest delirium is 
completely explicable. Surely this simpler case is no excep- 
tion, and we lack only knowledge of psychic conditions and 
changes to see law and order where once chance was thought 
to reign. To invoke the aid of spirits to explain such cases 
is itself insanity on our part, so that the Piper cult itself 
only awaits an explanation which will, if all present signs 
fail not, be complete sooner than most now dream. 

But what of the content of these messages ? This is the 
chief point with most of her defenders. Perhaps our sit- 
tings contain as much material for supernatural findings 
as she ever gave, possibly more. Her hand often injected 
isolated words, phrases, and names, but in our case noth- 
ing seemed to fit or be apposite enough to anything in our 
experience to interest us or to allure us on to the reciproc- 
ity of further question and answer, in which believers usu- 
ally find their faith reinforced. Search as we would they 
singly seemed to pass us by, and were palpable misses. I 
knew, for instance, several Helens, living and dead, but 
never had any special interest in or close acquaintance with 

xxvii 



INTRODUCTION 

any of them, which perhaps was rather singular consider- 
ing the frequency of this name. I had known two Wolcotts, 
but had met both only once. I have known several Bessies, 
but only as I have known hundreds of others, and so of 
nearly all the rest. On the other hand, these injections 
seem palpable fishing. Very likely it seemed monstrous to 
the ghost that when he mentioned my father, ever so flit- 
tingly, I did not rush in more promptly with attempts to 
actually get into communication with his spirit as it seemed 
to flit so near. We all have fathers, but somehow it seemed 
vulgar to me to hold the intercourse which I should love to 
with my father's spirit in such a way as this. Again, I had 
a brother Robert, a Cambridge clergyman, who died years 
ago, and this name appeared. Perhaps this was the nearest 
to a hit, but it is not an uncommon name and many Boston 
people remember and still others have heard of him. Per- 
haps I have an instinctive dread of being disillusionised, or 
feel undue shyness and coyness toward the ghosts, but I 
vow it is not, as the control seemed to indicate in the only 
two or three lines we suppressed, because I was hard 
hearted, lacking in affection, and quickly forgetful of my 
departed friends. This insinuation I interpret as the cumu- 
lative resentment at my persistent failure to follow the in- 
jected fishing invitations and to indulge in conversation 
with the suggested spirits through this medium, nor do I 
think I owe them any apology. Dear ghosts of my relatives, 
I did not mean to slight you, and pray accept my apologies 
and my profound regrets if you really were trying to ring 
me up. 

But indeed it is an utter psychological impossibility for 
me to treat this subject seriously. If a critic insists that 
we should have followed all of these weird beckonings till 
we struck some true trail, that we must relax and be utterly 
passive and follow the suggestions of the numen, I can only 
say that the bait did not attract. We might have faltered, 
dickered, and skirmished with the control along the lines 

xxviii 



INTRODUCTION 

suggested by the names, and carried on a ghostly flirtation 
with these hovering, beckoning personalities, and then 
laboriously matched up their phrases with facts from our 
lives ; but is this the way to proceed ? Why are our friends 
on the yonder shore so coy and wispy ? They were not so 
in life. If my father really got within range, why did he 
vanish so immediately ? Was it not really " up to him ' ' to 
make the first advances ? I was there, waiting and listening. 
Was he offended that I did not drop every other purpose 
and follow him and cry out and entreat him to give me 
some infallible tests, or at least a private sign ? He was not 
thus in life, nor was my brother. Perhaps I partly feared 
the twaddle messages I had often received through other 
mediums. I wish to remember both in the relations of the 
same respect and culture I bore them when living, and I 
would not have them appear now as ninnies. Their flitting 
nod or beck and their precipitate retreat was as if all their 
love for me had been distilled out of their lives in the 
cerulean blue, and that would have been disheartening. A 
drop of human blood is better than a tide of celestial ichor. 
I should have felt that they were constrained and held 
against their will. I would not have the memories I cher- 
ish of them polluted, and should have surely felt that they 
were pitiably weakened wrecks of their former selves. It 
would really have been but a battle of wits between me and 
the control to see if the latter could snatch up suggestions 
involuntarily and unconsciously emitted by me. I should 
have felt myself a victim, prostituted by my lust for knowl- 
edge of their survival and their perdurable identity. The 
medium was so dim and muddy that I was averse to looking 
at loved forms through it. Did I then fail thus of my chief 
duty as an investigator, as the doughty believer and critic 
is sure to say I did, and that at the most crucial point 1 I 
trow not. Living, as I have said, among believers, I have 
been notified unnumbered times that spirit messages from 
departed friends awaited me, and I have responded often 

xxix 



INTRODUCTION 

to such calls, but always with results that have positively 
shamed my scientific curiosity, so that my loathness to go 
further is the product of a long, slow growth. Moreover, 
I am convinced that they on their side would be more loath 
to meet me under such conditions and for such purposes 
than I to meet them. I hate to think of them as under such 
a control. My belief in them rests on higher grounds, and 
would be degraded by such rendezvous. I might have cross- 
examined other ghosts, not so near me, for proofs of their 
identity, but not these. It would be like peeping and bot- 
anising on my mother's grave, when all these and many 
more plants grow elsewhere. Neither of them shall be a 
corpus vile for experimentation or ghostly vivisection on 
my part. 

But one need not be so serious. Each was only a flatus 
vocis, and to such callers I am not at home. If ghosts are 
real, too, there must be abundant other evidence, and this 
we have utterly failed to find; and only when there is a 
decent case should we conjure those nearest and dearest. 
Hyslop's example to the contrary notwithstanding, I draw 
the line at such indignity for my own family, all of whom 
in life had a horror of all such communications. My real 
father ( Heaven rest his soul ! ) would never have responded 
to such a call, and I am still in too much awe of him to 
have him catch me at such business. I can vividly antici- 
pate his reproof without seeing him compelled to administer 
it in the control's hideous penmanship, when he wrote an 
almost copperplate hand. Both these relatives died firm 
in the Christian faith of another life after death, and 
neither of them would have welcomed the scepticism that 
would be implied on my part in thus questioning their 
existence. Thus, under the circumstances, it would not 
have been a pleasant meeting. Finally, I do not worry 
about another life, and am not suffering from any parousa- 
mania to explore it now and here. This life is rich and 
good enough for me now, and if another comes in its own 

xxx 



INTRODUCTION 

good time, as I hope at least to deserve, its fruitions and its 
reunions will be welcome surplusage, and if not, that, too, 
is best. One world at a time is the motto that is best to live 
and die by. Doing the present duty with all our might is 
the best propaedeutic for whatever lies beyond, and it is 
bad policy for even science to waste time and energy in 
trying to force man's way to knowledge that lies beyond 
and above his estate. Here faith is better than sense. This 
domain may well ever be reserved from reason and science. 
Let us work on soluble problems, for there are hosts of them 
that fairly cry out for exploration ; and religion surely has 
some rights that even science might well respect. 

In fine, at the very best, I for one can see nothing more 
in Mrs. Piper than an interesting case of secondary per- 
sonality with its own unique features. It is very easy to 
conjure mystic meanings into the utterances of all such 
split-off egos, to treat every mutter in a dream symbolically, 
to match each at occasional points with real events or per- 
sons, if we set out with the wish and will to do so. Kant 
set aside Swedenborg because he had no stomach for ex- 
plaining the terms of a visionary by the theories of a meta- 
physician, and the members of the Piper cult should profit 
by his example. Even telepathy seems to me a striking case 
of the subjection of the intellect by the will-to-believe. 
If an intense optical stimulus or the high psychic impres- 
sion it causes cannot jump across the infinitesimal space 
occupied by the myaline nerve sheath so as to affect the 
auditory fibres, or vice versa, as in synesthesia, and if the 
law of isolated conductivity holds and is so cardinal in 
neurology, how much less can impressions pass across vast 
spaces independently of the organs of sense ! Here I have 
for years had a standard series of tests often tried on be- 
lievers in telepathy and clairvoyance, but never with a 
glimmer of success. Only when conditions can be so con- 
trolled that, e. g., a teacher can announce beforehand that 
on such a day, hour, and place he will demonstrate these 

xxxi 



INTRODUCTION 

things, can or will they be accepted by any sound scientific 
mind. Science is indeed a solid island set in the midst of a 
stormy, foggy, and uncharted sea, and all these phenomena 
are of the sea and not the land. If there have been eras 
of enlightenment it is because these cloud banks of super- 
stition, for which about all forms of modern Spiritism are 
only collective terms, have lifted for a space or season. 
Spiritism is the ruck and muck of modern culture, the com- 
mon enemy of true science and of true religion, and to 
drain its dismal and miasmatic marshes is the great work 
of modern culture. The passion to know whether if a man 
dies he shall live again, which weights all the dice and 
makes most men eagle-eyed for all that can favour and 
bat-eyed for all that seems against what is the deep desire 
of every heart, will never find satisfaction or solution in 
this wise. We have largely evicted superstition from the 
physical universe, which used to be the dumping ground of 
the miraculous. Superstition to-day has its stronghold in 
the dark terrce incognitce of the unconscious soul of man 
toward which researchers to-day are just as superstitious 
as savages are toward lightning, eclipses, comets, and earth- 
quakes. The attitude of mind of these two types of man- 
kind toward these two classes of phenomena can be psy- 
chologically paralleled to the uttermost detail. But we 
have great ground to rejoice that science is now advancing 
into this domain more rapidly than ever before, and that 
the last few years have seen more progress than the cen- 
tury that preceded. The mysteries of our psychic being 
are bound ere long to be cleared up. Every one of these 
ghostly phenomena will be brought under the domain of 
law. The present recrudescence here of ancient faiths in 
the supernatural is very interesting as a psychic atavism, 
as the last flashing up of a group of old psychoses soon to 
become extinct. When genetic psychology has done its 
work, all these psychic researches will take their place 
among the solemn absurdities in the history of thought, and 

xxxii 



INTRODUCTION 

the instincts that prompted them will be recognised as 
only psychic rudimentary organs that ought to be and will 
be left to atrophy. 

Dr. Tanner has for three years been my research co- 
adjutor at Clark University. She is an able and indefat- 
igable worker, and her first book, " The Child " (1904, 
pp. 430) has had wide vogue and is still the best general 
survey of pre-adolescence. The present work is, of course, 
all her own, save a few notes of mine on the Piper sittings, 
jotted down with no thought of their publication, least of 
all in their present form. It is significant that she began 
this study inclined to believe that there was at least some 
general truth in both telepathy and in Spiritism, but in 
and by the studies here reported has passed over to a nega- 
tive attitude toward both. To my mind, this treatise is the 
sanest and best of the many that have of late appeared in 
this field, and should be carefully pondered by all inter- 
ested in the subject. It is my sincere hope and belief that 
it will do much to bring a sounder and more scientific atti- 
tude into vogue than that which has prevailed during re- 
cent years. It is significant, too, that the chief works of 
the English Psychic Research Society have never before 
had a searching, impartial, critical estimate, often as they 
have been worked over by believers. Those with scepticism 
enough to have been impartial have never been able to 
arouse interest enough to treat these studies thoroughly. 
Thus, I cannot but hope that this book will mark a turn of 
the tide. 

G. Stanley Hall. 

Clark University, 
Worcester, Mass., July, 1910. 



EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED 



In the following pages various somewhat technical 
terms are used which need some preliminary explanation. 
They cannot always be exactly denned because they have 
varying connotations with different writers, but the en- 
deavour here will be to give the reader a general idea of the 
meaning. 

First consider the terms descriptive of the sittings of 
the trance medium. The medium is the medium of com- 
munication between this world and the other ; the sitter is 
the person who comes to receive messages, and in this dis- 
cussion is usually identical with the experimenter. The 
control is the spirit on the other side who enters the medi- 
um's body and controls the mouth or hand. The communi- 
cating spirit may be the control also, or may simply be 
present on the other side and give his messages to the con- 
trol. The latter is supposed to be the case usually with Mrs. 
Piper. Mrs. Piper has various controls at the present time. 
The spirit of Richard Hodgson, who, while alive, was Mis. 
Piper's manager for eighteen years, is the most common 
one. For translations of foreign languages, the spirit of 
F. W. H. Myers, one of the founders of the Psychical Re- 
search Society and a voluminous writer while alive, is usu- 
ally called upon. Rector is another control who appears 
at the beginning and end of each sitting and occasion- 
ally at other times. Only a few members of the Psychical 
Society know who he claims to have been while alive. 
Other controls have appeared with Mrs. Piper and still do 

XXXV 



EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED 

at times, but the references to them in the text are self- 
explanatory. The Myers and Hodgson controls, however, 
appear not only in Mrs. Piper's sittings but also in the 
messages sent through Mrs. Yerrall and Mrs. Holland, and 
their presence there should not lead the reader to conclude 
that they are different persons. They claim to be the same, 
communicating through the different mediums. To distin- 
guish them from each other the Psychical Researchers des- 
ignate them as the Piper-Myers, Verrall-Myers, and the like. 

We cannot undertake here to give all the spiritistic 
terms commonly used. ' ' The light ' ' is the term employed 
by the controls as synonymous with medium. ' ' The ma- 
chine " is the medium's body and especially her right 
hand. ' ' This side ' ' refers to the world of living men, and 
" the other side " to the world of spirits. 

For the sake of clearness these terms are used in their 
current meanings in the body of the text. For the same 
reason, a sharp line of division is drawn between Mrs. Pi- 
per and her controls, the two being spoken of as if they 
were totally distinct. Mrs. Piper, or the waking or normal 
Mrs. Piper, is the Mrs. Piper who is not in the trance state. 
When in the trance, she is referred to simply as " the me- 
dium," and whatever is said and done by her is referred 
to the controls. 

The trance state in her case is described at length in 
the text. But trance states are by no means the exclusive 
possession of mediums. They are common in hysterical 
subjects, and in cases of secondary personality, and can be 
produced by hypnosis or suggestion with proper subjects. 
While in the trance the victim is more or less unconscious 
of what is going on about her, and on recovering remem- 
bers her feelings more or less dimly. The state has many 
resemblances to somnambulism. Neither the causes nor 
cure of it are as yet well understood. 

The subconscious self or subliminal mind is a term used 
to designate various mental processes which seem to be 

xxxvi 



EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED 

present in the mind, but are not within the range of con- 
sciousness, e. g., if a person has a difficult decision to 
make, he may put the whole matter out of his mind, not 
thinking about it for several days, and then one day find 
that he knows just what he intends to do. In such a case, 
various shiftings of associations must have been going on 
of which he has no memory and which he could not attend 
to at any time, and so we say they went on " below con- 
sciousness," or in the " subconscious mind." Again, it 
has been discovered that in many cases of hysteria the root 
trouble is some mental shock which has sunk below the 
conscious level and is there disorganising the personality, 
and that when this can be brought to consciousness and 
connected with the rest of the mental life, the person is 
cured. In hypnotism, again, with a good subject, a com- 
mand can be given that he shall do some act at some fu- 
ture date — even a year or more later — and when the time 
comes he will do the act. This is called post-hypnotic sug- 
gestion. In the interval between the hypnotising and the 
date set for the act, the subject has no memory of the com- 
mand, and yet the fact that he performs the act at the 
appropriate time shows that the command left some sort 
of trace. So we say it was in the ' ' subconscious mind. ' ' 

The memories that can be revived in hypnosis or by 
putting the subject through a strict process of self-analy- 
sis and questioning extended sometimes over weeks — called 
the psycho-analytic method — seem to indicate that very 
many experiences which we cannot recall at will are never- 
theless present in this subconscious level, and many stu- 
dents now suppose that no experience is ever really 
forgotten. 

Now, if some of these groups of submerged or sub- 
conscious memories are roused into activity, they tend to 
connect themselves with other groups, and under certain 
conditions of nervous strain or shock, they may become 
strong enough to obtain control of the usual channels of 

xxxvii 



EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED 

expression, the mouth and hands especially, and then the 
person speaks only of those memories and feelings and 
becomes a new personality. We say then that a secondary 
personality has emerged. After a time — sometimes weeks 
or months, sometimes only days or hours — these centres 
lose their control, the person goes into a sort of stupor, 
trance, or sleep, and wakes up either his old self or a third 
self, still another personality. The original self is the 
primary personality. Theoretically there is no limit to 
the number of selves which may thus appear, and in some 
clinical cases as many as six have been studied. 

The principal reason why these multiple personalities 
do not appear in most of us seems to be that we ourselves 
use the ordinary avenues of expression of thought, the 
mouth, hands, and body generally, so constantly that they 
cannot easily be shunted off from their usual connections 
and connected with these submerged thoughts. But many, 
if not all, people can learn to do this. If a person follows 
Mrs. VerraH's suggestions, as given in her account in the 
text, he will probably get writing, as she did, or if not 
writing, he may succeed with crystal gazing. 

Writing produced in this state of abstraction, seem- 
ingly without the volition or knowledge of the writer, is 
called automatic writing, and the writer is called the 
automatist. Such writing may be done in the ordinary 
way, holding the pencil in the hand, or by means of the 
planchette. The planchette has various forms. In its sim- 
plest form it is a thin board on three legs with castors so 
that it moves very easily. The front leg sometimes consists 
of a pencil, and then the planchette is put on a piece of 
paper. If the front leg is not a pencil, the planchette is 
put on a board which has the alphabet printed on it. 
In either case the hand is placed lightly on top of the 
planchette and questions are then asked of it. If the con- 
ditions are propitious, an answer will be written or spelled 
out even to questions of which the automatist knows noth- 

xxxviii 



EXPLANATION OF TERMS USED 

ing. In such cases the abstracted state of the automatist 
gives the subconscious ideas and inferences a chance to 
express themselves through the writing, and so correct 
answers may be given to things completely forgotten by 
the conscious mind, and much nonsense will also be pro- 
duced. 

There is also a group of terms connected with the ex- 
periments in thought transference. The experimenter or 
agent is the one who is giving the impressions ; the percipi- 
ent is the subject, or the one who is sitting passively try- 
ing to receive the thoughts in the mind of the agent. 
Hyperesthesia is a state of heightened sensitiveness of some 
sense-organ. For instance, ordinarily, a person cannot 
hear a watch tick more than fifteen or twenty feet away, 
but if his ears are hyperesthetic, he may hear it even in the 
next room with the door closed. Sight, smell, etc., may be 
similarly heightened under some conditions. 

Suggestibility is a term applied to a condition in which 
a person is influenced to an unusual degree by suggestions 
or commands given to him. It seems to be especially char- 
acteristic of the hypnotic trance and abstracted states 
already referred to. By means of suggestion a person in 
any of these states may be made hyperesthetic to some 
objects and insensitive to others. 

Amnesia is forgetfulness of what has happened in these 
states. 

Various other terms used in the text are either self- 
explanatory or are defined when used. 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 



CHAPTER I 
INTRODUCTION: SCOPE AND STANDPOINT OF THIS STUDY 

Probably no modern form of religion — not even except- 
ing Christian Science — is so fiercely discussed to-day as 
Spiritism. On the one hand the Psychical Researchers 
have for the first time studied the facts in the case sys- 
tematically and have printed voluminously, persistently 
calling their work " scientific " and maintaining that they 
have " proved " certain facts bearing in the most funda- 
mental way upon personal survival after death. They 
have thus drawn to themselves a large following of well- 
read, mystically inclined people, who have perhaps found 
orthodox religion somewhat too arid to satisfy their deeply 
emotional natures, and who gladly believe in scientific dem- 
onstrations of immortality. 

On the opposite side stand the strict scientists of all 
sorts, physical, biological, and psychological, who consider 
the study of such phenomena, a waste of time, and who 
have no tolerance either for the persons or the results of 
their work. These men rarely put their opinions into print, 
because for the most part, probably, they are unprintable, 
and would consist chiefly of dashes, and so the general pub- 
lic has heard little of recent years save the things favour- 
able to ' ' scientific spiritism. ' ' We lack, therefore, an 
evaluation of the subject which will disclose the flaws in 
the evidence and yet which will do justice to the pioneer 
work of the Psychical Researchers and to the unsatisfied 

1 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

needs which have led to this great outburst of belief in 
Spiritism. 

In the space of the present work, I cannot hope to do 
this with regard to all the phenomena included under Spir- 
itism, nor can I even deal with the historical phase of the 
subject to any great extent. I shall limit myself rather 
closely to the work of Mrs. Piper and of the English Psy- 
chical Research Society on telepathy and related phe- 
nomena. In thus omitting discussion of the physical phe- 
nomena, and of the historical side of Spiritism, I am in- 
fluenced chiefly by the fact that there are two excellent 
books covering these phases, viz., Mr. Podmore's " History 
of Modern Spiritualism " and Mr. Carrington's " Physical 
Phenomena of Spiritualism," although Mr. Carrington's 
recent exploitation of and professed faith in Eusapia Pal- 
ladino, who has been repeatedly detected in fraud, must 
cast an unfortunate shadow backward on this book. Here 
I will merely note the chief divisions of the subject before 
taking up my particular theme. 

Spiritistic phenomena manifest themselves in two chief 
forms, psychical and physical. Under the latter come all 
such things as raps, slate writing, lights, apports, mate- 
rialisations, etc. Under the former, come the messages 
purporting to be from the dead. These may be received in 
various ways, either with or without a trance, through 
speaking or writing, or visions with or without a crystal, 
as warnings or premonitions, and in vague or definite form. 
Sometimes the control impersonates the spirit, and at other 
times gives only the content of the message. 

Both psychical and physical phenomena are very an- 
cient, but in modern times Spiritism had declined until 
1848 when the Fox Sisters, of Rochester, N. Y., inau- 
gurated a movement which has spread continuously since, 
in spite of the most colossal and frequently exposed frauds. 
The frauds became so notorious and yet the dupes so nu- 
merous, both in this country and in England, that when 

2 



INTRODUCTION 

the English Society of Psychical Research was organised 
in 1882, one of its first steps was to appoint a Committee to 
investigate Spiritism. Some of the members of this Com- 
mittee were themselves sincere Spiritists and others were 
sceptics, but all were united in the conviction that all fraud 
must be exposed. 

The members of this Committee made it their business 
to visit mediums and to find out how they produced their 
phenomena. The first result was the exposure of very 
many mediums of high standing, and the publication of 
their frauds in the Proceedings and Journal of the Society. 
The Committee finally reached the conclusion that no pro- 
fessional medium could be used in scientific investigation, 
because even if sometimes she produced genuine phenom- 
ena, she would use trickery in order to get results when 
the genuine ones could not be secured. The desideratum 
in the way of a medium is to have some one whose living 
is not dependent upon her seances, and who is so honest 
and so in love with truth that the desire for reputation, 
success, etc., will not induce her to employ fraud. 

The mediums whom the Society puts into this class 
may be counted on the fingers of one hand, and even they 
are of very different degrees of merit. First let us say 
that in seeking for " scientific " proofs as distinct from 
probabilities or merely interesting statements, the Society 
itself discards historical cases in toto, because the accounts 
of them do not give sufficient details for us to pass judg- 
ment on them either for or against. This is true even in 
the cases of D. D. Home and Stainton Moses, who are 
probably the most eminent Spiritists of recent times. We 
have left then a small group of non-professional mediums 
who are willing to subject themselves to any tests and who 
have never been discovered in fraud. Those concerned 
with psychical phenomena, and in whom the English So- 
ciety is interested, are Mrs. Thompson, Mrs. Holland, Mrs. 
Forbes, Mrs. Verrall, and Mrs. Piper. Mrs. Piper alone is 

3 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

an American, the others all being Englishwomen. Per- 
haps Mrs. Smead should also be mentioned here, as one in 
whom Hyslop is especially interested in this country, but 
her case has not been subjected to such severe tests as the 
others have. 

Comparatively little has been published of the four 
Englishwomen, the most important being Mrs. Verrall's 
account of her development of automatic writing, and Mrs. 
Holland's cross correspondences. These we shall consider 
later. Far more numerous than these and more widely 
known are the messages delivered through Mrs. Piper. 
Indeed, so much of the evidence for * ' scientific Spiritism ' ' 
comes through her that we hardly exaggerate the case in 
saying that she is the only medium who at present offers 
any proofs of the psychical phenomena of Spiritism which 
appeal to judicial minds. She and the mediums just men- 
tioned are the only ones who have submitted to and seemed 
to stand any scientific and long-continued series of tests. 

There is considerable difference of opinion as to what 
constitutes a scientific test of a seance, and perhaps we may 
simplify the problem by dividing it into various sections. 
First we shall consider the qualities desirable in the investi- 
gator or sitter; second, the standards and conditions to be 
used in obtaining physical phenomena ; and third, standards 
for judging the content of messages. 

First, as to the desirable qualities in the investigator. 
That investigator will have the least personal bias in this 
matter who has suffered no keen and recent loss of some 
beloved friend or relative. A strong desire to come into 
touch with the departed makes it difficult to hold the judg- 
ment in suspense when they purport to appear. The in- 
vestigator should also be well poised and well balanced, and 
should not be suffering from nervous disease or nervous 
exhaustion, since such usually disturbs the judgment, es- 
pecially where personal affairs are concerned. If he is 
investigating physical phenomena, such as materialisations, 

4 



INTRODUCTION 

raps, etc., it is indispensable that he should have a knowl- 
edge of sleight of hand. In no other way can he be sure 
that he is not deceived. Whether he is investigating physi- 
cal phenomena or psychical, he ought to know the degree 
to which suggestion and inference assist observation in all 
our thinking, and especially the illusions to which memory 
is subject. He also ought to understand how necessary it 
is to give the medium no inkling of his purposes or method. 

Incidentally it should be remarked here that, contrary 
to a wide-spread opinion, the physical scientist is not the 
best qualified person to investigate spiritistic phenomena. 
In many cases eminent scientists have been deceived by 
palpable frauds, and some conjurers assert that they are 
especially easy to deceive because they are so confident of 
the trustworthiness of their senses. They are easily di- 
verted to some unimportant physical detail which attracts 
their scientific minds, and while they are attending to that 
the conjurer performs the essential part of his trick. They 
also have no conception of the art of misdirection, or the 
tricks which their memories may play them. A cynical man 
of the world, with no trust in the average man, would be 
the best investigator, if he had some psychological training. 

It needs few words to show the difference between this 
ideal investigator and the average sitter. In the begin- 
ning some persons go to a medium partly for the joke of it, 
but even they usually have some residuum of superstition, 
perhaps unconfessed even to themselves, which inclines 
them to attach undue significance to any hit the medium 
may make. This tendency to explain unexplained events 
by supernatural agencies is so strong in all of us that it 
might almost be called an instinct, and even the most rigid 
training in exact science rarely eliminates it except in the 
realm of the particular science concerned. It is not sur- 
prising, therefore, that the average sitter, even if he comes 
away still an unbeliever, usually has the feeling that this 
or that incident or saying of the medium may, after all, 

5 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

have been caused by some supernatural power. Any one 
who talks with people who have gone to a sitting, half in 
curiosity, half in fun, must have noted this reference to the 
surprising, and inexplicable, save in unusually hard-headed 
persons. The infrequent sitter, then, declines to believe 
that some things, at least, are inexplicable by natural laws. 

But the sitter who goes to mediums occasionally or reg- 
ularly goes far beyond this. Such a sitter usually has a 
practical motive in thus going. He or she may want advice 
in business, and seeks it from the deceased wife, husband, 
or friend. Not infrequently the sitter does get good, prac- 
tical suggestions — none the less so because they come from 
the medium — which perhaps are worth the money he pays 
for them, and so he comes to depend upon the sitting at 
crucial times. Very often advice is wanted as to delicate 
family situations, comfort is desired by the bereaved 
mourner, and the feelings of remorse over unnecessary 
misunderstanding and unkindness are to be removed. In 
such cases the medium comes to hold in the life of the sitter 
a position which combines to a large extent the functions 
formerly performed by both the pastor and the family 
lawyer. If in addition she prescribes, she adds the duties 
of the family physician. 

The person who is receiving valuable suggestions or 
comfort is not much concerned to look for fraud. When 
raps or materialisations are being produced, he is attending 
strictly to the content of the messages. If the messages are 
vague, he is most interested in interpreting them, not in 
considering that such generalities do not imply spiritual 
assistance. When he leaves the sitting he cares little 
whether his memory of it is absolutely accurate, but he 
does care a great deal whether he remembers and inter- 
prets it in such a way as to help him in his daily living. 
In short, his object is not scientific investigation but prac- 
tical assistance. He is a thorough-going pragmatist. It 
helps him, therefore it is valuable for him, therefore, he 

6 



INTRODUCTION 

concludes, it is true; which means, to him, that its own 
claims are to be accepted. 

On the other side, the attitude of the medium is more 
complex than is ordinarily recognised. In another con- 
nection I shall discuss the diathesis of the genuine medium. 
Here I will only point out that there seem to be at least 
three characteristic types of medium. First there is the 
thorough-going fraud, who intends to live by working upon 
these deepest instincts and emotions. Such mediums, of 
course, belong in the same class as all other dead-beats and 
swindlers. 

Then, in the second place, there are those mediums who 
do really have feelings of premonition, powers of crystal 
gazing, trance tendencies, etc., and who do not themselves 
understand these tendencies and are partly inclined to be- 
lieve in them as showing connections with the other world. 
When such persons are under the necessity of earning a 
living, and have discovered the commercial value of their 
powers, they see no reason why they should not become 
mediums for pay. Perhaps there is no reason. But such 
powers do not act continuously, and so the medium finds 
either that she must sometimes fail in her sitting, or refuse 
a sitting, unless she supplements her supposedly super- 
normal powers by her native wit and common sense, and 
perhaps draws more sitters by some showy materialisation 
of one kind or another. I fancy that many mediums have 
this peculiar combination of belief in themselves with de- 
ception of the sitter, which makes it especially difficult for 
the casual investigator to discover their frauds or to under- 
stand the mediums. 

Then, thirdly, there is the medium with these peculiar 
characteristics, who either does not need to earn a living 
or has a strong enough moral sense to resist the temptations 
to deceit just mentioned. These are the simon-pure cases 
which alone are worthy scientific investigation. 

Such mediums, who will submit themselves without re- 

7 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

serve to the conditions laid down by unprejudiced and well- 
trained investigators, are the only ones who should be con- 
sidered. As long as the medium herself sets any of the 
conditions, the results can have no scientific value, no mat- 
ter how convincing they may be to believers. 

This brings us to the consideration of these few trust- 
worthy mediums, and especially of Mrs. Piper. 

In making this summary I have drawn especially upon 
the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, and 
have myself had six sittings with Mrs. Piper. I have also 
had access to some of the unpublished records of Mrs. Pi- 
per's sittings. I have not considered it necessary to go 
over the vast accumulations of unpublished material, chiefly 
because, if I understand the case correctly, the published 
records contain the best of what could be made public. 
The unpublished material, that is, increases tremendously 
the mass of rubbish, and to a less degree the evidential 
messages, save in some instances where the matters are too 
private to be made public. Professor James {Proceedings, 
23, p. 115) describes the entire mass of the records on the 
Hodgson control thus : " I have left out, by not citing the 
whole mass of records, so much mere mannerism, so much 
repetition, hesitation, irrelevance, unintelligibility, so much 
obvious groping and fishing and plausible covering up of 
false tracks, so much false pretension to power and real 
obedience to suggestion, that the stream of veridieality 
that runs through the whole gets lost as it were in a marsh 
of feebleness, and the total dramatic effect on the mind 
may be little more than the word ' humbug. ' The really 
significant items disappear in the total bulk." 

If I have erred, therefore, in not studying all this mass 
of material, my mistake redounds to the advantage of the 
controls. 



CHAPTER II 

MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY, PERSONALITY, AND TRANCE 

STATE 

In 1885 Prof. William James, of Harvard University, 
first heard of Mrs. Piper through, some of the members of 
his family who had had a sitting with her and had been told 
the names of various members of the family, together with 
other bits of information that it seemed impossible for the 
medium to know by any ordinary means. James himself 
was sceptical at first, but was induced through curiosity to 
attend a seance himself, his name of course being unknown, 
and his relationship to the ladies. He, too, was given pri- 
vate information about the family affairs that to him was 
very surprising, and that made him desire to investigate 
the matter further. Accordingly, not only did he continue 
to have sittings himself, but he sent sitters to Mrs. Piper, 
under assumed names. Some of the sitters obtained a great 
deal of information and became convinced that they were 
communicating with spirits ; others obtained none, and felt 
that Mrs. Piper was a fraud. Nevertheless, the phenomena 
were successful enough for the Society for Psychical Re- 
search to take up the case in 1888 and begin a systematic 
investigation, at first through Dr. Hodgson, whose head- 
quarters were then in Boston. 

Dr. Hodgson's first step was to convince himself that 
Mrs. Piper was not employing fraud, that she had no ways 
of getting the information which her controls give to sit- 
ters. For this purpose he placed her under close surveil- 
lance, and had her and her husband ' * shadowed ' ' for sev- 
eral weeks by a detective without finding anything sus- 
4 9 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

picious. He also became convinced that in her normal state 
at least she had no desire to deceive. She showed no curi- 
osity at all about the sitters, and when taken to their houses 
she was never found questioning the servants, investigating 
the drawers or desks, or doing anything which might yield 
facts desirable to know. In addition to this, he and the 
other members of the Society were confident that even if 
she had desired to do so she had not the money necessary 
to carry on inquiries on any such scale as would have been 
necessary to obtain the results. Mrs. Piper's husband was 
a clerk in a Boston store, and Mrs. Piper herself never 
received more than $1,000 a year for her services, while 
if she had obtained her information by sending people to 
investigate families she would have been obliged to spend 
considerable sums for traveling, to say nothing of paying 
the agent. 

After becoming convinced that there was no intentional 
fraud, Hodgson began a study of the content of the mes- 
sages, and at length took Mrs. Piper to England, that the 
Society there might study her at first hand. There all 
sorts of precautions were taken to prevent her getting in- 
formation through any ordinary channels. Nevertheless, 
Mrs. Piper gave successful sittings to Sir Oliver Lodge 
and to various other members of the Society, convincing 
many of them that she was in truth controlled by spirits. 
After her return to Boston she remained under the direc- 
tion of the Society, giving sittings to sitters arranged for 
by Hodgson, who collected a vast mass of data which are 
now in the archives in London. In 1898 one of these sit- 
ters was Dr. James Hyslop, then of Columbia University, 
who was not at that time a believer in Spiritism. His first 
two sittings were not very successful, but after that the 
spirit of his father appeared, took up the problem of prov- 
ing his identity according to the standards set by the son, 
and succeeded so well that Hyslop became convinced that 
he was communicating with his father's spirit. Conse- 

10 



MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY 

quent upon this Hyslop gave up his work of teaching, and 
devoted himself to investigating the matter and to testing 
Mrs. Piper thoroughly and scientifically, in order to make 
it impossible for any scientist to assert that fraud is pos- 
sible or any ordinary means of obtaining the information 
given. Up to the time of the dissolution of the American 
Branch of the Society, in 1906, Hyslop continued to experi- 
ment with Mrs. Piper, but since then he has been con- 
cerned with other mediums, while she still remains under 
the control of" the English Society, represented in Boston 
by Mr. G. B. Dorr. While there is no formal contract 
between Mrs. Piper and the Society or Mr. Dorr, the un- 
derstanding is that she shall receive no sitters except those 
for whom he arranges, and, on the other side, that he shall 
provide the two or three a week necessary to support her 
and her two daughters. Though she has never received a 
salary from the Society, she is thus assured of a living. 

Mrs. Piper has never been a " professional medium, " 
i. e., she has never received the general public as sitters. 
At the same time we must note that for twenty-three years 
she has had an ever-increasing reputation to maintain, and 
that she has reaped definite pecuniary and social advan- 
tages from her mediumistic powers, as well as some 
notoriety and annoyance. Each additional year of success 
makes it harder for her to contemplate failure, and if the 
controls have any sense of her importance to the cause of 
Spiritism, must tempt them to employ all possible means 
to keep their messages up to the highest standard. 

In the many years that she has been under investigation 
the normal Mrs. Piper has never been discovered in fraud. 
Hyslop estimates that about $75,000 have been spent in in- 
vestigating and publishing the account of her case, and 
the Society alone has devoted about 2,000 pages of its Pro- 
ceedings to her. The other writings about her would make 
a fair library. 

The mental tastes and attainments of the normal Mrs. 

11 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Piper have been dealt with very little in published accounts 
of her case, but are significant if one attempts to study the 
trance state in relation to the normal one. 

Mrs. Piper has come ere now to be a believer in her own 
extraordinary powers, but she has found so much practical 
inconvenience from the publicity which has become attached 
to her that she hides herself from the general public as 
much as possible. She has been persecuted by reporters 
and misrepresented by the press in ways that have made 
her justly indignant, and that have left her to some degree 
suspicious of every stranger who seeks her without proper 
introductions. She seems to have the feeling to some de- 
gree that she is isolated, shut off from others by her voca- 
tion, and, as far as possible, she keeps this phase of her life 
from the knowledge or notice of casual acquaintances. 
Sitters going to her house are requested to enter and go 
up-stairs quietly, so that occupants of the other apart- 
ments shall not know sitters are being received, and even 
a ring at Mrs. Piper's own door is made unnecessary 
through some one being on the watch to receive the sitter. 

Mrs. Piper speaks with strong feeling of the suspicions 
to which she has been subjected, and naturally, and as far 
as possible, she discourages tendencies shown by one of her 
daughters toward mediumistic powers, far preferring that 
both of them should be trained thoroughly along other 
lines to earn their own livings. Her powers have, indeed, 
brought her into close acquaintance with many well-known 
men and women, and have earned her living for years, but 
they always have made her stand out as exceptional, if not 
abnormal, and she seems to look forward without dread 
to the time when her power will fail — as the controls have 
said it would — and she must retire to private life. 

Her isolation has been emphasised by the fact that she 
has never had anything to do with ordinary Spiritism, has 
never attended seances regularly or subscribed to spir- 
itualistic literature. She has, on the other hand, read at 

12 



MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY 

some length the publications of the Society for Psychical 
Research, especially the accounts of her own sittings, and 
she enjoys Prof. William James's writings, but finds more 
technical works, such as Prince's, uninteresting. 

Of late years Mrs. Piper has not been connected with 
any church. She was brought up a Methodist, but when 
her parents moved to a town where there was only a Con- 
gregational church, she attended that. She would like to 
have some church connections, but seems to feel that prob- 
ably she would not be welcomed in any church on account 
of her work as a medium. Here, too, she is isolated. 

The type of mind shown by Mrs. Piper is also signifi- 
cant. She seems to be of the impulsive, impressionistic 
type, guided far more by feeling than by logical reasons. 
She says that she has premonitions and warnings in a 
vague way, especially with regard to illness ; that, although 
she does not often dream unless she has indigestion, she 
has had at least two dreams which came true. She has 
tried a little crystal gazing, and believes the crystal fore- 
told events, but she has never, in her normal state, received 
telepathic messages. In coming to decisions she shows the 
impulsive tendency. For instance, she may suddenly decide 
to go on a journey, put on her hat and start at once. She 
reaches decisions about people quickly and on slight 
grounds. She says, for instance, that if she is in a roomful 
of people talking to some one, she may overhear others 
talking, and at once make up her mind which of them she 
is going to like or dislike. 

This impressionability shows itself in various other ways. 
She is unusually fond of nature and its beauties, and very 
susceptible both to pictures and to music. She is poor at 
remembering names, but good at remembering both faces 
and voices, especially voices. She believes that she can 
tell much of a person's character, especially his sincerity, 
from his voice. 

In spite of this susceptibility, however, she is not a 

13 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

good hypnotic subject. Years ago, in the early history of 
the trance, Professor James tried unsuccessfully to hypno- 
tise her, and Dr. Hall made two attempts, which were also 
unsuccessful. 

Her own attitude toward the trance state seems to be 
that of a believing spectator. She says with reiteration 
and emphasis that she has absolutely no memory of what 
goes on in the trance, not even a feeling of deja vu, or 
vague sense of recognition. When she reads the published 
accounts of her own sittings they are totally new to her, 
and sometimes it is difficult for her to believe that she 
could have written the things recorded. She cannot tell 
from her feelings afterward whether the sitting has been 
pleasant or unpleasant, successful or not. 

This being the case, her belief in her powers would seem 
to stand on the same basis as anyone else's. At first, she 
says, she did not like to have the trance come on because 
she feared that it was a symptom of hysteria or some men- 
tal abnormality. Accordingly, she resisted it, she was 
afraid of it, etc. But apparently, as the Researchers grew 
to a belief in her powers, and as she herself became fa- 
miliar with them through conversations and reading, she 
became confident that they were not signs of abnormal but 
of supernormal powers, she yielded herself to them, and 
now believes in them and in her mission as a medium. 

Her entrance to the trance state is voluntary, though 
she is unable to describe in detail her mental attitude. She 
usually carries on a casual conversation with the sitters 
while sitting in an armchair in front of a table on which 
three pillows are placed. She tries not to think intently 
of anything, and more or less consciously she makes her 
breathing much slower. She begins to look sleepy, the eyes 
become slightly fixed and staring, within a minute the 
mouth drops open, and the eyes become rigid, the breath- 
ing is still slower, and in five or six minutes from the first 
look of sleepiness the head is dropped on the pillow, the 

14 



MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY 

breathing is slower by one-half than normal, and very- 
stertorous, and the hand is ready to write. Usually as the 
trance comes on the face twitches slightly, and sometimes 
the fingers do also. Sometimes there is some incoherent 
talking. The pulse varies from about 84, which seems to 
be the normal rate before the onset of the trance, to be- 
tween 70 and 76 at the close. The breathing varies from 
20 to 22 for the normal, to between 7 and 10 during the 
trance, up to the time the hand ceases to write. It then 
becomes gradually more rapid, rising to normal in the 
course of fifteen minutes. 

This is the present method of entering the trance, Mrs. 
Piper says that she experiences no discomfort from it, and 
that variations in her health or feelings do not seem to 
modify it. It has never come on spontaneously, e. g., while 
she was asleep or absent-minded or dozing. 

In the early days of the trance, however, the case was 
quite different. Then Mrs. Piper was not sure of what the 
trance signified, was unwilling to yield fully to it, and re- 
sisted its onset. As a result, it came violently, sometimes 
her entire body was convulsed, as well as her face, there 
were sighs and groans, and the whole process gave the im- 
pression of decided pain. But in 1896, when the Imperator 
group of controls took possession, all this began to decrease, 
until she reached the present comparatively easy mode of 
procedure. 

Emergence from the trance to recognition of those pres- 
ent and to coherent thinking usually takes longer than 
entrance into it, and lasts from fifteen to twenty minutes. 
Even then Mrs. Piper usually still looks sleepy, seems a 
little dazed, and speaks a little indistinctly. She also says 
that for some time afterward she is disinclined to move 
about, her body and limbs feeling heavy. 

In coming out of the trance, after the controls have de- 
parted, the hand drops the pencil and becomes inert. Then 
the head begins to rise slowly from the pillow, being tossed 

15 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

up with each breath, then falling back somewhat, but each 
time remaining up a little more than the last time, until it 
is upright. The breathing has been getting more rapid, 
and the eyes slowly open, at first with a vacant stare, then 
focussing upon near objects, and finally seeing. Usually 
the face is much more drawn than in going into the trance, 
the left side contracting more than the right, twisting the 
mouth very much to the left. The face assumes an expres- 
sion of pain; frequently there are weeping and looks and 
expressions of disgust. Very soon after this there is usu- 
ally intent staring at some object within range, then a 
" snap " in the head, and then recognition. 

During this coming out of the trance Mrs. Piper has 
been encouraged to talk, so that almost as soon as the head 
is erect disjointed words are muttered, fragments of sen- 
tences, exclamations of pleasure or pain or disgust, followed 
by remarks indicating the various degrees of recognition 
up to the full control of thought and speech. 

The mental condition accompanying this return to con- 
sciousness is a rather complex one, the result of years of 
suggestion. On the spiritistic hypothesis, during this in- 
terval the controls are leaving Mrs. Piper's body and her 
own spirit is returning to it from the other world. From 
the disjointed remarks made at this time one gathers that 
her spirit has remained attached to the body by an ' ' ethe- 
real cord," down which it slides, and that its entrance is a 
disagreeable process, this world looking very dark and dull 
by contrast with that other. Before this happens, how- 
ever, various exclamations purport to come from the con- 
trol, who seems to depart by degrees, as it were, becoming 
more incoherent as he fades away. Then, with no pause, 
the next remark appears to come from Mrs. Piper, and we 
infer that the crucial point has been passed. 

We have said that going into the trance is voluntary. 
How about coming out of the trance % Is the length of the 
trance under the control of the control, can it be prolonged 

16 



MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY 

indefinitely, or shortened at will? On making inquiries of 
Mr. Dorr we were told that on one of Mrs. Piper's visits 
to England some experiments were made along this line. 
In one case the trance was prolonged about four and a half 
hours, and on that occasion the progress out of the trance 
took nearly an hour, and the investigator was too fearful of 
bad results to attempt such a long sitting another time. 
We were under pledge not to undertake any experiments 
which might affect the medium's power, and so could not 
try this. It seems probable that the average time of the 
sitting has been determined by normal fatigue, and that 
to prolong it beyond this time would only result in increas- 
ing f aintness and incoherence in the writing. Whether the 
control would be more suggestible and could be forced to 
pass into the normal Mrs. Piper by degrees, somewhat as 
Prince forced Ansel Bourne's two personalities to meet 
and unite, is a very interesting question. 

As a rule it takes five or six minutes to enter the trance, 
the hand writes between an hour and a half and two hours, 
and it takes fifteen or twenty minutes to come out of the 
trance. 

If we assume that this is approximately the fatigue 
limit, then it ought to be possible for the controls to leave 
at any time that they choose, and this is actually the case. 
On one occasion we made the control shorten the sitting 
by half an hour, and I am convinced that he could be made 
to leave at any time. The coming out of the trance is there- 
fore voluntary on the part of the control, at least up to the 
fatigue limit, just as entering it is voluntary with Mrs. 
Piper. 

There have been no published tests of Mrs. Piper's con- 
dition while in the trance since the later '80 's, when James 
made some. We therefore thought that it would be valu- 
able to ascertain what the present state of things is, and 
we tried as many as were possible without much apparatus. 
I have already said that during the course of the trance 

17 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the pulse varies from 84 in the normal to, at lowest, 70 in 
the trance. The breathing varies from approximately 22 
in the normal to, at lowest, 7, and, as a rule, 10 in the 
trance. 

This profound variation in the breathing, with the les- 
sened oxygenation of the blood, must result in a partial 
suffocation, a temporary toxemia, and is probably the 
agency by means of which the normal consciousness is put 
out of commission and the control put into possession. 

The head, we have said, is dropped on the pillow and 
turned to the right, with the eyes closed, after first becom- 
ing staring and rigid. In the early tests it was found on 
one occasion, by pulling up the eyelid, that the eyeball was 
rolled up, but we did not find this to be the case. When 
the eyelid was raised the ball seemed to be in the normal 
position. We were unable, however, to get any sight reac- 
tions either to objects or colors. 

We tested taste and smell with similar negative results, 
although the stimuli applied were strong. 

We took a clicker and watch to test hearing with. The 
watch was put first to the ear and then to the hand, but 
in no case did the control admit hearing. The clicker 
was used similarly, and only when clicked in the hand 
did the control admit hearing it. This, of course, is in 
accordance with the control's assumption that his ear is 
in the hand. 

Undoubtedly the hearing is normal, and is more acute 
and sensitive than in the average person, but I question 
whether it is more so in the control than in the normal 
Mrs. Piper. The normal Mrs. Piper is unusually sensitive 
to sounds, voices, etc., and that is probably why the control 
has always been willing to let the eyes close and receive his 
information chiefly through the ears. Both ears are uncov- 
ered, and as the sitter is usually close to Mrs. Piper's right 
hand, his mouth is not far from her right ear. She must feel 
not only his voice but his breath, and thus get indications as 

18 



MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY 

to the regularity of it, catches, gasps, etc., indicating sur- 
prise or some other emotion. 

At the same time the sitter is put off his guard as to the 
sensitiveness of the ear by the control's statement, which 
he is expected to adopt, that the control hears through Mrs. 
Piper's right hand. The sitter is expected to talk at the 
hand, and the control appears to have difficulty in hearing, 
until the sitter finds himself acting as we do with deaf per- 
sons. He tends to shout at the hand, and feels safe in mak- 
ing side remarks to the other sitters, etc. We found that 
when these side remarks contained any information they 
were later on given back to us by the control, and if we 
had gone on the assumption that the control was as deaf 
as he seemed to be, and had made the remarks unintention- 
ally, as most sitters do, we should have been much startled 
by the control's knowledge of our private thoughts. We 
found that whispering and slight noises always made the 
control suspicious and angry. 

The principal tests which we wished to make were on 
the sensitiveness of the skin, especially of the right hand, 
which is supposed to be the only part of the body con- 
trolled by the spirit. We also were very desirous of ascer- 
taining whether the control could move any part of Mrs. 
Piper's body at will. 

The esthesiometer was adjusted at three-fourths of an 
inch and applied to the centre of the right palm, lightly at 
first, and then more heavily, without eliciting any response. 
The second time it was tried, with the heavy pressure, the 
hand wrote that it felt two touches. The instrument was 
then readjusted at half an inch, and applied first lightly, 
and then heavily, and finally with a rocking motion which 
would strongly emphasise the two points. Nevertheless, 
the hand reported that there was " probably one " touch. 
The pressure here was so severe that Mrs. Piper reported 
afterwards that for several days there were red points on 
the skin. 

19 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

The pain-pressure test was then applied on the centre 
of the palm, the pressure being increased from zero to 
twenty-five pounds. The control continued to write that he 
felt nothing until the maximum was reached, when he 
wrote, ' * Eector forbids. Better not. ' ' 

Now the curious thing here is that though the control 
kept writing that he could not feel these pressures, as soon 
as the pressure was removed the hand would begin to write, 
and the hand then and at all other times guided itself on 
the paper, moving back to the left when it had reached 
the end of the paper, and pausing at the bottom for the 
sheet to be torn off, except when it was writing in a great 
hurry. 

It also is sensitive to the feeling of the pencil. If no 
pencil was put into the hand at the beginning of the trance, 
the hand began with the usual writing motions but soon 
paused and waited, and then, when it got the pencil, began 
over again, except in one instance just after we had told 
Mrs. Piper this fact. It also showed considerable sensitive- 
ness to the clicker which we used in testing hearing. It 
took the clicker, felt it over, and after a little found 
how to click it, all of which would have been impossible had 
the hand been really insensitive. Similarly, every now and 
then during the sittings the hand explores the sitter's face 
or hand, feeling them in an undoubtedly sensitive way. 

The obvious conclusion which is forced upon us from 
these contradictory results is that in reality the hand is 
sensitive, and probably is approximately normal in its sen- 
sitiveness, but that the control is trying to deceive us into 
the belief that during the trance there is really no sensi- 
tiveness in any part of Mrs. Piper's body. We cannot 
assume that the control is in a state of anaesthesia toward 
certain classes of objects, such as can be induced in hyp- 
notic subjects, because the control showed no anaesthesias 
save in connection with the experiments. 

These were the first sense tests that we gave, and as we 

20 



MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY 

tested smell, taste, and sight with only negative results to 
our strong stimuli, we became convinced that even if there 
were sensitiveness the control would never admit it, be- 
cause his whole purpose was to convince us that he had no 
sort of connection with Mrs. Piper's body. We did get 
some involuntary betrayal with both taste and smell, for on 
holding a bottle of ether to Mrs. Piper's nose, she at first 
winced and drew away from it, although at the same in- 
stant the control wrote that he smelled nothing. Similarly, 
when I put a third of a saltspoonful of salt in the mouth, 
the mouth drew up and became wry, although just at that 
time the control asked if we were ready to begin the ex- 
periment. These reactions might have been purely reflex 
perhaps. But several times in the course of the sittings the 
control complained of the conditions, which, we found, 
meant that the air was close, and thus he showed at least 
so much sensitiveness to smell. 

Our attempts to persuade the control to move various 
other parts of Mrs. Piper's body were similarly doomed to 
failure, the control reiterating that he could not be in two 
places at once, and that he would have to leave the hand, 
go to the other part of the body to be moved, and then 
leave for that day. We did not feel that the experiment 
was worth this loss of time and money, and so dropped it 
at that point. 

This brings us to a discussion of the relations between 
the control and the normal Mrs. Piper. We have already 
said that Mrs. Piper maintains emphatically and with re- 
iteration that she has not the faintest glimmer of memory 
of what goes on in the trance, and that all her knowledge 
of it comes from her having read the published accounts 
of her sittings and from what sitters have told her. 

In an exactly similar way the control claims to have 
no knowledge of Mrs. Piper save what he has learned from 
various sitters. That is, the theory which he wishes us to 
adopt is that he controls simply the medium's right hand, 

21 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

and has no interest or knowledge in the medium her- 
self. We tried at various times, directly and indirectly, 
to obtain information from him relative to Mrs. Piper, 
but he was always on his guard at once when we referred 
to her. 

It would be almost impossible to subject this matter to 
tests that would be worth anything, because we can never 
tell whether any given fact about the other state has been 
told to the personality in question. The really suspicious 
circumstance in the case of the control is that he professes 
such complete ignorance of Mrs. Piper. When we con- 
sider that the living Hodgson worked with Mrs. Piper for 
eighteen years, and that the dead one has been coming 
back two or three times a week for nearly four years, 
it is very unlikely that he would be totally ignorant of 
Mrs. Piper's address, family, habits of life, etc., as he 
claims to be. 

In some instances, too, we were able to bring to the 
surface a state of feeling or even a memory common to the 
two personalities. We have already said that on various 
occasions the control has asked for more air, when we were 
not conscious that the room was close, and this fits in with 
Mrs. Piper's own statement that she is very sensitive to 
closeness, feelings of suffocation, etc., and has to take long 
walks every day in order to prevent this feeling. Again, 
in one sitting I pretended that the gas was leaking out in 
the hall, and the control at once wrote violently and with 
many abbreviations that Mr. Dorr was to fix anything that 
was wrong, showing thus a marked solicitude for Mrs. 
Piper's belongings in decided contrast to his pretended in- 
difference when we were trying to get information. Again, 
some sittings before we gave our tests, we asked him if he 
would feel it if Mrs. Piper was hurt, and he said that he 
would not, but that it would be best not to hurt the " ma- 
chine, " " because it might suffer after I have gone. ' ' The 
most distinct case of a memory common to the two states 

22 



MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY 

was when Dr. Hall, before the trance, quoted the phrase, 
" a white blackbird," to Mrs. Piper, and in the trance 
Hodgson used the phrase, " catch me and you catch a 
white crow." 

We became pretty well convinced that the controls and 
Mrs. Piper like and dislike the same persons, and that to 
some degree the emotional state of one condition, if strong, 
persists to the other. 

The relation of the two states to each other may be 
summed up as follows : on the spiritistic hypothesis, the two 
states are mutually and totally ignorant of each other. 
We were unable to devise any tests to ascertain whether the 
normal self is really totally amnesic as regards the control, 
but we did find the control sometimes over-ignorant of the 
normal self, while in some cases he betrayed anxiety as to 
the concerns of the normal self; that he showed similar 
emotions with regard to the same people ; and that in a few 
cases he unconsciously betrayed a memory of events in the 
life of the normal self. We conclude, therefore, that the 
control's amnesia is not complete of the normal self, and 
that the two selves have at least a common emotional char- 
acter. We cannot state exactly how far these common feel- 
ings extend, but we may make a few inferences from the 
reactions to the lists of words given to the control and the 
normal Mrs. Piper. 

On the Jung-Freud theory there is a certain normal 
length of time — 1.5-2.5 seconds — taken in reacting to a 
word. A lengthened reaction shows some emotion roused 
by the word, and if the word given in reaction is associ- 
ated superficially, it indicates suppression of the real feel- 
ing roused. For instance, if synonyms, puns, or sound 
associations are employed, they are superficial in character, 
and indicate a feeling which is concealed. 

Again, in the case of Mrs. Piper, if the separation be- 
tween the control and Mrs. Piper is really complete, as the 
control asserts, if the control is really a man's spirit, his 

23 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

reactions will be quite different from hers, especially on 
the feeling side. 

Accordingly, we made out our lists of words in order to 
bring out any such differences, if they existed. Our groups 
were as follows: 

1. Words which might be referred to sex. Out of our 
first list of one hundred and sixteen words nineteen might 
be put into this class, but fourteen of them were ambigu- 
ous, e. g., such as figure, lips, dress. 

2. Words bearing upon operations and sickness, twelve 
in number, or thirteen, if " blood " is included here. 

3. Words relating to spiritualism, trance, unconscious- 
ness, twelve in number. 

4. A group centring about women's occupations, de- 
signed to bring out any characteristically masculine re- 
actions. 

5. A small group bearing on tragedy, and words in- 
serted as filling or to get indifferent reactions. 

( See appendix for these lists. ) 

At first blush the reactions of the control and the nor- 
mal do not seem to have much in common, since the same 
word is given in very few cases, but if we grant, as we do, 
considerable amnesia, this is only to be expected. Examina- 
tion of the words bearing on feminine occupations shows, 
however, that there are no characteristic differences in the 
reactions of the control and the normal, such as we should 
expect with a spirit that bangs about in the noisy fashion 
of the control. Again, in the group of words bearing on 
operation, every word which has a long reaction in the nor- 
mal state has a superficial reaction from the control, which 
indicates suppressed feeling. And, finally, the same thing 
occurs with regard to the words referable to sex: those 
with long or no reactions in the normal state have long or 
superficial reactions in nearly every case with the control. 

This shows that the control and the normal Mrs. Piper 
have approximately the same feeling background with re- 

24 



MRS. PIPER'S DISCOVERY 

gard to these three groups of subjects, although character- 
istic differences ought to appear in every case if the two are 
really distinct personalities. Our original conclusion, that 
the two selves have at least a common emotional character, 
is therefore considerably strengthened by these reactions, 
and since the control thus reacts to test words he must have 
some memory of the events associated with those words. 
That is, the control must have memories of the various 
operations through which Mrs. Piper has gone. 

We have no doubt that the normal Mrs. Piper has little 
remembrance of the trance state, though we are inclined to 
assume the persistence of a feeling state of the trance into 
the normal, and we believe that events occurring in the 
sitting may later on pop up in the waking state, just as 
post-hypnotic suggestions seem to come into the subject's 
mind spontaneously. On the other hand, we know that the 
control is shifty and deceptive on occasion, and we believe 
that he has far more recollection of the normal Mrs. Piper 
than he admits. We have shown that he has the same 
emotional attitudes in various cases, we have found the 
same distinct memories in a few instances, and we are con- 
fident that if he were sincere we should find more, though 
probably there is some amnesia, too. That is, the relation 
would seem to be somewhat the same as that between a 
secondary personality and a primary, in which the first 
has little or no knowledge of the second, but the second 
has some, though not complete knowledge of the first. 



CHAPTER III 
EARLY TRANCES AND TRANCE PERSONALITIES 

Let us first summarise briefly Mrs. Piper's physical 
condition. When she was sixteen years old she was struck 
by an ice sled, and was injured internally and on one knee. 
Not long after this an ovarian tumor developed. In 1884, 
when she was twenty-five years old, her first child was 
born, and her second one sixteen months later. Nine years 
later, in the spring of 1893, came the first operation, in 
which the diseased Fallopian tubes and ovaries were re- 
moved. In 1895 hernia developed, and in 1896 another 
operation was necessary to remedy this. Since then her 
health has been greatly improved, but she still takes un- 
usual care of herself, as if she feels that such care is nec- 
essary in order for her to remain well. 

Shortly after the birth of her first child Mrs. Piper's 
father-in-law, who was a Spiritualist, persuaded her to con- 
sult a blind medium, Dr. Cocke, in order to get advice as 
to the tumor from which she was suffering. At this sit- 
ting she felt twitchings in her hands and feared that she 
might become unconscious, and at the second sitting, six 
weeks after her child 's birth, the medium placed his hands 
on her head and she did become unconscious, seeing as she 
went off a flood of light, strange faces, and a hand moving 
before her. She had seen a similar flood of light as she 
was fainting from the effects of the blow from the ice sled. 
She had several other sittings with Dr. Cocke, and each 
time was controlled by Chlorine, the same spirit that ap- 
peared at first. Then came a period when many controls 
appeared, notable characters such as Luther, Lincoln, 

26 






EARLY TRANCES 

Washington, Bach, Commodore Vanderbilt, and Loretta 
Pinchoni. It seems that Bach " formed her band " for 
Mrs. Piper, and for a time Chlorine came for outside sit- 
ters, and Pinchoni, Siddons, and others for family seances. 
Dr. Phinuit also came from the first, but at first only for 
medical cases. At length Bach said that all of them were 
going to concentrate upon Phinuit, and he then became the 
chief and almost the only control. 

Now, Dr. Cocke's control was also a French doctor, 
named Albert G. Finnett (pronounced Finnee), and Mrs. 
Piper met this control in her visits to Dr. Cocke. Dr. 
Cocke's Finnett, however, did not talk or act like Phinuit, 
but it is asserted by Mr. Piper, Sr., that he is undoubtedly 
the same person. Indeed, at first, he said that he was per- 
mitted to come through Mrs. Piper, referred to the blind 
medium, and to people at his seances, etc. 

An attempt was made in the early days to find whether 
Mrs. Piper had heard of her other controls at these seances. 
Mr. Piper, Sr., said that she had not; a lady who sat at the 
same time as Mrs. Piper, said that all of her early con- 
trols had appeared at Dr. Cocke's seances first, but later 
she refused to make any written statement for print. This 
makes it seem probable that Mrs. Piper was really uncon- 
sciously trained by Dr. Cocke, and that the later character- 
istics of Phinuit grew slowly in accordance with the sug- 
gestions from the sitters, much as we have seen them do in 
the case of a medium to be described later. 

On the other hand, Phinuit himself later, in 1888, de- 
nied that he had ever employed any other medium than 
Mrs. Piper, but his word need never be taken at its face 
value. 

By his own account Dr. Phinuit is a French physician, 
and he gave to Dr. Hodgson dates of his birth, death, resi- 
dence, etc., none of which could be verified by the most 
diligent search. In spite of French being his native tongue, 
Phinuit had forgotten it, save a few very common phrases 

27 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

like bon jour and au revoir. He failed to meet any tests 
of his personal identity. His character as shown in the 
sittings is that of a somewhat coarse, free-and-easy person, 
vain, and addicted to boasting, to the use of colloquial and 
slangy terms, and even to mild oaths. He was given to 
evasions, quibbles, and lies in order to make himself appear 
to advantage. He was always boastfully ready to meet any 
test suggested, and when he failed notoriously, as happened 
repeatedly, no one could be more ingenious in framing 
excuses than he. 

Up to 1893 Phinuit played the part of chief control. 
He brought the spirits of the departed to communicate 
with their living friends, delivered their messages and gave 
those of their friends back, and was general stage manager. 
But he did not nourish under Dr. Hodgson's tutelage. Dr. 
Hodgson was always critical, was always disclosing his de- 
ceits and discounting his boasts, was always disapproving 
of him in one way or another, until Phinuit must have felt 
that his task was a thankless one. Not only that, but Mrs. 
Piper herself says that she never liked him, and that she 
disliked to enter the trance partly because she hated to 
think that he had possession of her. He did possess her 
more fully than any other control, causing convulsions in 
the passage to and from the trance, and speaking as well 
as gesturing. Mrs. Piper is even now not sure just what 
Phinuit was, but knows that he was not what he claimed 
to be, and thinks that possibly he was some spirit that 
never was in the body, who had little power in the other 
world, and so delighted to take this opportunity to become 
the focus of attention and importance. 

In spite of these unpleasantnesses, however, Phinuit re- 
mained in chief control until the year 1892-93. In 
February of 1892, " George Pelham," a young and prom- 
inent lawyer, a friend of Hodgson's, greatly interested in 
the problem of personal immortality, died suddenly and 
accidentally. Pelham had had one or two sittings with 

28 



EARLY TRANCES 

Mrs. Piper in 1888, under an assumed name, and had often 
discussed the problem of immortality with Dr. Hodgson. 
Mrs. Piper knew about his death, although it is not sup- 
posed that she knew anything about Pelham himself, save 
through some casual references to him by Hodgson. This, 
however, is assumption, and since he was rather prominent, 
she may have known more than was supposed. 

On March 22d, about six weeks after his death, reference 
was made to Pelham at a sitting where an intimate friend 
of his was the sitter, and Pelham 's full name and those 
of some of his friends were given. He appeared inci- 
dentally at two or three other sittings and then, on April 
11th, controlled the medium directly instead of speaking 
through Phinuit as before. During the next six weeks he 
frequently came for part of the sittings, and then Mrs. 
Piper went away for the summer. In the fall of 1892 
Pelham was the control through fourteen sittings designed 
to prove his personal identity, sometimes speaking and 
sometimes writing, with Phinuit always at hand to assist. 

Now, during this time Mrs. Piper was going through a 
crisis in her health, especially during the fall and winter 
of 1892-93, when the series of fourteen sittings was 
being held, and finally, in March, 1893, she underwent the 
first operation, at which the tumor, with the Fallopian 
tubes and ovaries, was removed, so that we have here the 
question of how far the development of Pelham was aided 
by Mrs. Piper's poor health. 

Pelham and Phinuit continued to be the dominating 
controls until 1895-97, when again Mrs. Piper's health 
was unsettled and she was obliged early in 1896 to undergo 
another operation, this time for hernia. 

During the fall of 1895 and the winter of 1896 she 
gave few sittings, and none after the operation until the 
fall of 1896. But in June of 1895 Professor Newbold had 
introduced the subject of Stainton Moses, asking Pelham 
for information about him, and two or three days later 

29 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Moses himself appeared. Moses was while alive a prom- 
inent English Spiritualist, one of the founders of the So- 
ciety for Psychical Research, and Mrs. Piper, it seems, 
had read an account of his life given her by Dr. Hodgson. 
He had been controlled while alive by certain spirits call- 
ing themselves Imperator, Rector, Doctor, and Prudens, 
and in November and December of 1896, when Mrs. Piper 
resumed her sittings after the operation, Moses and these 
controls appeared, and finally in January, 1897, made the 
demand of Hodgson that he should give them the manage- 
ment of the Piper case. They said that she was a much- 
battered machine, and that much of the difficulty in the 
sittings came from the fact that inferior spirits came in- 
discriminately. They, on the other hand, would take great 
care of her, patch up the machine and make it last as long 
as possible. Pelham urged that this transfer should be 
made, and so Phinuit, although rather unwilling, was re- 
tired in some disgrace, making his last appearance January 
26, 1897. Pelham also retired, but in the honourable char- 
acter of control emeritus, and occasionally he still appears, 
just to show that he is still alive and that the feeling is 
friendly. 

Since then until Hodgson 's death in 1905 the Imperator 
group had full control, and, indeed, still has, ostensibly. 
But shortly after Hodgson's death his spirit appeared at a 
sitting, and by degrees he has become practically the dom- 
inating spirit. Here again there may be a physical basis 
facilitating the change in the approach of the climacteric, 
which has definite characteristics even when some of the 
sex organs have been removed, as in this case. The psychic 
occasion was, of course, Dr. Hodgson's death. 

Podmore is authority for the statement that since 1900 
the messages received through Mrs. Piper have had little 
evidential value or interest. I should push this back even 
further and say that even the famous Hyslop sittings, 
which occurred in 1898-99, are inexpressibly trivial and 

30 



EARLY TRANCES 

stupid, and that the marked improvement in Mrs. Piper's 
health, dating from the operation for hernia in 1896, was 
also the beginning of a steady deterioration in the sittings 
until the onset of the climacteric. I would almost venture 
to prophesy that after the climacteric the sittings will again 
deteriorate and that this time they will never again be- 
come interesting unless Mrs. Piper is subjected to some 
great shock. That is, the facts in the case seem to point 
to the theory that the mediumistic power is encouraged 
and perhaps in the beginning caused by nervous shock, 
which, in persons of a certain diathesis, tends to split the 
personality. 

We have then four distinct sets of controls: Phinuit, 
from 1886 to 1893; Pelham, 1893 to 1896; the Imperator 
group, 1896 to 1905; Hodgson, 1905 to the present. Os- 
tensibly these four groups are very different in character. 
Phinuit was coarse, rude, shifty, deceitful, and almost if 
not quite a quack; Pelham assumed to be a cultured man 
of the world, broad, keen, and polished; the Imperator 
group claim to be spirits who are solemn, prayerful — we 
might even say pious — and authoritative; while Hodgson 
assumes to be like the living Hodgson. These differences 
are readily referable to the knowledge of the originals pos- 
sessed by Mrs. Piper and the control. Phinuit, as we have 
already seen, was borrowed from Dr. Cocke, and resembled 
the control of the ordinary medium very closely. When 
he was taken in hand by Hodgson, his personality was 
already well developed along these lines, and as far as we 
can judge from the published records no attempt was ever 
made to modify his characteristics by suggestion. 

Pelham, however, on his casual appearance was warmly 
welcomed, and encouraged to remain and to prove his iden- 
tity along lines laid down entirely by Hodgson. He de- 
veloped in the directions which Hodgson and his other 
friends desired, and his extreme sensitiveness to suggestion 
is shown in the ability to recognise Pelham 's friends, to 

31 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

pick up some of Pelham's phrases, etc. If only the records 
of these sittings were complete they would prove one of 
the most interesting studies in the entire series, as showing 
the suggestibility of the control and the amount of informa- 
tion involuntarily given by the sitters. Unfortunately, no 
full reports were published, and so they cannot have evi- 
dential value and are not taken up in any detail in this 
study. 

The Imperator group derived their characteristics from 
the account of Moses 's life read by Mrs. Piper, and at first 
were much more in evidence than later on, discoursing at 
considerable length, praying, etc. But they found that the 
sitters did not care much for these things, and so by de- 
grees they became mere stage managers, their personalities 
became less and less in evidence, and they degenerated into 
convenient excuses by which to explain difficulties in com- 
municating. At present, were it not for the opening greet- 
ing and closing benediction, one would never suspect their 
presence save when the control desires some authority or 
excuse. 

Little systematic attempt has been made to prove the 
identity of these spirits, the one attempt Moses made to 
give the true names of his controls being an ignominious 
failure. 

Similarly, the impersonation of Hodgson has been little 
tested, partly because the chief investigators are now well 
convinced that spirits do actually return, and partly be- 
cause it would be almost impossible for Hodgson to give 
any satisfactory proof of his identity, since he was so well 
known to Mrs. Piper. Any information given or assump- 
tion of Hodgson's characteristics could always be referred 
to Mrs. Piper's personal knowledge of Hodgson. Whether 
this control is really Hodgson or is an impostor, therefore, 
we should expect a pretty good impersonation, since both 
the normal Mrs. Piper and the trance personalities had 
been dealing with Hodgson for over twenty years. But, 

32 



EARLY TRANCES 

curiously enough, this does not seem to be the case in our 
sittings, or in the published sittings since Hodgson 's death. 
We found, first of all, that the Hodgson control claimed 
to be totally ignorant of Mrs. Piper, whom he had known 
so intimately and in whom he was so greatly interested; 
in the second place, on Dr. Hall's suggestion, he claimed 
an intimate acquaintance with Dr. Hall, recalled incidents 
referred to by Dr. Hall, etc., although in fact he never 
knew Dr. Hall personally ; in the third place, he never gave 
one single evidential sentence showing that he had any 
knowledge of his experiments with the Watseka Wonder, 
or of Davis, Abbott, etc. (See Sitting 1.) All his remarks 
are extremely general, and where definite knowledge is 
shown it is at once referable either to Mrs. Piper's own 
knowledge or to a previous sitting. 1 

That is, the Hodgson control, like the others, seems to 
be the result of suggestion and expectation. The Psychical 
Researchers and Mrs. Piper expected him to appear after 
Hodgson's death; they knew certain obvious characteris- 
tics of Hodgson's, which appeared in the control, and they 
believed in him, or acted as if they did, from the begin- 
ning, thus encouraging him to continue. They also ac- 
cepted with little or no question his right to assume the 
management of Mrs. Piper on that side, as he had on this, 
so that his confidence in himself grew rapidly and has had 
no such setbacks and cold water as Phinuit and even Pel- 
ham received. In their sittings, furthermore, the Hodg- 
son control is not entirely disrupted from the Imperator 
group. He receives directions from them, and obtains in- 
formation, and has from the beginning known and carried 
out the general theory of the conditions of the sittings 
which has gradually grown up in the interactions between 
the various controls and the investigators. From this point 
of view the Hodgson control seems to be a grafting upon 

i Cf. also Professor James's opinion of the Hodgson control, pp. 83 
and 84. 

33 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the Imperator group. He is nourished by their sap, but lie 
has imported certain new traits that make a Hodgsonesque 
fruit. His present conviction that he is Hodgson is too 
strongly intrenched by his years of unquestioned suprem- 
acy to be destroyed in the course of a few sittings, but on 
all other points save this he is most suggestible and even 
amorphous. This conviction may well be genuine, but has 
itself come as the result of constant encouragement. 

We can see this encouragement and its effects in all the 
various groups which have possessed Mrs. Piper. When 
she first went into a trance she was living at her father- 
in-law's, and he was a Spiritist. Dr. Cocke and he at 
once interpreted the trance as spirit possession, and urged 
her to repetitions of it. When Phinuit appeared, great im- 
portance was attached to his medical diagnoses, and he 
was highly respected until Dr. Hodgson repeatedly detected 
him in falsehood. Even then there is nothing in the re- 
ports to show that his actual existence as a disembodied 
spirit was questioned, but only that he was the particular 
person he claimed to be. The tacit assumption was that 
he was a real existence. So with Pelham, although he was 
severely questioned as to his personal identity, the constant 
suggestion from beginning to end was that he was some 
identity, and the same was true of the Imperator group 
and much more of Hodgson. 

Now if, when the trance state first appeared, and the 
first varying and amorphous personalities showed them- 
selves, Mrs. Piper had fallen into the hands of Prince or 
of Sidis, instead of being with Spiritists, what might 
have been the result? These personalities were by no 
means as well developed in her at that time as Miss Beau- 
champ 's various selves were when she went to Prince, and 
we can readily conceive that if Mrs. Piper had had these 
manifestations explained to her as symptoms of a divided 
self, and had gone through some such course of discour- 
agement of them and persuasions of them to psychic sui- 

34 



EARLY TRANCES 

cide as Miss Beauchamp did, the result would have been 
the same; the personalities would have faded away into 
nothingness. So suggestible are the controls that I cannot 
escape the conviction that if even now, after twenty-three 
years of development, Mrs. Piper could be isolated from 
spiritistic influences and the controls systematically dis- 
couraged, they could be finally united to the normal Mrs. 
Piper and so lose their separate existence. 

To such theories the Spiritists are quick to reply that 
such cases as Miss Beauchamp prove nothing except that 
she was subjected to conditions adverse to spirit communi- 
cation, that she really had mediumistic powers, but that 
they were killed by her course of treatment. If this means 
anything it means that the abnormal conditions leading to 
double personality are the conditions for mediumship. 
We can choose then between saying that all cases of sec- 
ondary personality are mediums, or that all mediums have 
tendencies to secondary personality. 

If, however, there is real spirit communication, surely 
the spirits ought not to be so wholly the outcome of sug- 
gestion as we have shown. Moreover, if the Hodgson con- 
trol is the person he claims to be, he ought not to be 
constantly caught, as he was by us, in evasions and actual 
deceptions. The living Hodgson was notably honest and 
sincere j but this impersonation of him is anything but that. 
He displays all the characteristics that Hodgson so disliked 
in Phinuit. 

The Spiritists, therefore, constantly force us back to the 
content of the messages as proving spirit communication. 
As I understand it, they do not deny that perhaps the 
medium is abnormal, or that her powers may be destroyed 
by medical treatment. Their point is that while in this 
abnormal condition she gives evidence of supernormal 
knowledge. They do not deny that the controls are fre- 
quently shifty and deceitful, but maintain that even when 
they are they also give messages that cannot be referred to 

35 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the medium, the sitter, or any living person as their source. 
Personally they believe that some, if not most, of the con- 
trols are genuine, that they have gone far toward proving 
their personal identity, and that their advice is frequently 
more valuable than that of living friends, but the fair- 
minded among them admit that none of these phases have 
as yet been so scientifically tested as to compel assent from 
any unprejudiced person, or, if they have been so tested, 
they have not been published. They press back, therefore, 
to the test message, and upon it they rest their claim that 
spirit communication is being scientifically demonstrated. 

Let us consider, then, what sort of information we may 
reasonably expect a disembodied spirit to give us, and to 
what sort of tests we may subject both the message and 
the spirit. 

Leaving aside the somewhat fantastic speculations of 
Schiller 1 on the future life, we may say, first of all, that 
messages giving accounts of that life can never be evidential 
because we have no way of testing their truth. We are at 
once forced, therefore, to say that the only way spirit com- 
munication can be proved is by proving the personal iden- 
tity of the communicating spirit. How can this be done 
best? 

On this point there has been no little discussion, and 
even now there is no general agreement. The Society for 
Psychical Research, as represented by those who have 
worked chiefly with Mrs. Piper, has, however, gone upon the 
assumption that this may be done best by telling to the 
sitter events in the spirit's life. 

1. Best of all is information unknown to any living 
person, but verifiable by the sitter after it is told by the 
spirit. Under this head falls the case of the spirit telling 
the contents of a letter which he wrote while still alive, 
sealed, and kept unknown to any one else, to be opened only 

i F. C. S. Schiller, Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search, vol. xv, 1900-1, pp. 53-65. 

36 



EARLY TRANCES 

after he had returned in the spirit and told its contents. 
Various letters of this sort have been written by members 
of the Society for Psychical Research and deposited in its 
archives, there to be kept until the spirit returns. In some 
instances, such as that of Mr. Myers, the spirit has claimed 
to have returned and has given the contents of the letter, 
but it has never been correct, and in some instances has 
been a notable failure, as in the Hannah Wilde case, which 
I shall describe later. Under this head also would come 
cases in which the spirit tells where a valuable paper or 
some other object is hidden. 

2. A very good test is supplied if information is given 
known only to the spirit and one or two living people, pref- 
erably not the sitter, if these people are inaccessible to the 
medium. Such cases are claimed not to be uncommon in 
the Piper case, but the advocates of telepathy maintain 
that they in nowise prove spirit communication, since the 
knowledge might have been given telepathically to the me- 
dium by the persons knowing it, especially if the person 
knowing it is the sitter. This argument we will take up in 
detail later, but here will merely note that for many peo- 
ple this forms a good test. 

3. If the spirit was unknown to the medium, and yet 
uses his own characteristic phrases, words, inflections, etc., 
it creates a presumption that he is the person he claims to 
be, although it does not prove his identity. 

4. If he constantly refers to incidents known both to 
himself and the sitter, and does not describe incidents which 
did not occur, even if these incidents were known to other 
people, they create a presumption, as they become more 
numerous, that he is the person he claims to be. 

5. Of less value than any of these is the spirit's ability 
to assume the same attitude as when living with regard to 
the great questions of morality, religion, etc., since these 
attitudes are easily describable and are common to many 
persons. The fact that a certain spirit is an ardent Pres- 

37 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

byterian, and that the person he claims to be was also, 
really proves nothing whatever, for there are so many- 
ardent Presbyterians both dead and alive that the coinci- 
dence might easily be just a lucky guess. 

This theory that personal identity is best proved by the 
trivial and characteristic incidents in a man's life, espe- 
cially if they are known to no or few living people, has 
been worked out at considerable length by Hyslop, 1 and 
was tested by him as follows. First he selected two per- 
sons, one to play the part of sitter and the other that of 
spirit, the spirit's task being to prove his identity, the sit- 
ter having no notion who he was. Sitter and spirit then 
sent messages to each other, until the sitter was confident 
of the spirit's identity. The messages sent by the spirit 
were written by Hyslop, imitating as far as possible the 
mode of procedure in Mrs. Piper's trances, and in some in- 
stances were carefully graded from more general to more 
specific statements, in order to see just how specific the 
information must be before the sitter is confident of the 
spirit's identity. In some instances characteristic phrases 
were used. It is very curious to see on what slight evi- 
dence the sitter often identifies the spirit with confidence. 

At the same time the real question is not touched at all 
in any such experiments. Hyslop assumes to begin with 
that communication with discarnate spirits is possible and 
that the investigator's problem is only to find out how it 
is established, whereas in fact the investigator has no right 
to assume the presence of any discarnate personality at all 
until he has exhausted all possible explanations by means 
of incarnate personalities. In Hyslop 's experiments the 
sitter knew certainly that the one sending the message was 
alive, and that he was at least an acquaintance and prob- 
ably a friend, and so his range of guesses was greatly lim- 
ited. Further, he knew that no great issue was involved 

i Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. xvi, 1901. 
See Index. 

38 



EARLY TRANCES 

in his guesses, and so he guessed quickly and grew confi- 
dent easily. But the investigator receiving spirit messages 
from a medium must keep in mind two things which throw 
the burden of proof entirely on the spirits : first, that even 
if we accept all the supposedly authentic messages received 
from the other world from the earliest times to the present, 
they are infinitesimally few as compared with the vast 
number of souls in that other world, and are usually am- 
biguous in form; and, secondly, that as knowledge has 
advanced the powers and phenomena once attributed to dis- 
carnate spirits are being increasingly and constantly ex- 
plained through the laws either of physical nature or of 
the human mind. The whole psychological presumption, 
that is, is that messages received through any medium are 
in some way the product of the medium's mind in its rela- 
tions to the sitter's, and the problem as the psychologist 
sees it is to describe the various mental processes which 
have given rise to the message. If he is able to do this 
in the great majority of cases, even if some messages still 
remain unexplained, he considers himself justified in 
assuming that in time they, too, will be shown to fall under 
the same law, and in condemning any premature assump- 
tion of new forces which subvert all our present ideas of 
law. He does not deny the possibility of such forces, but 
he will not assume them in order to explain relatively few 
and imperfectly tested phenomena. 

Let us consider then the character of the Piper messages 
in general, as measured by the tests laid down by the most 
prominent believers in them. 

Unfortunately, throughout the reports as published by 
the Society for Psychical Research, we are told not infre- 
quently that those portions of the messages which best 
prove the identity of the spirits cannot be published be- 
cause the contents are of so private and confidential a char- 
acter. This leaves the student in a most embarrassing po- 
sition. On the one hand, he feels that he is unable to pass 

39 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

a reliable judgment when he has only part of the data 
before him ; on the other hand, he feels that those publish- 
ing the accounts of the seances have no right to ask him 
to believe in Spiritism on the basis of facts convincing to 
themselves but unknown to him. If they are ever to dem- 
onstrate Spiritism, they can do it only on the basis of the 
facts known to everyone. No reasonable man asks for belief 
in his experiments until he publishes them in full. The stu- 
dent is therefore put under the unpleasant necessity, how- 
ever great may be his confidence in the individual members 
of the Society for Psychical Research, of disregarding this 
plea for faith, and of judging the phenomena in the Piper 
case solely upon the basis of the facts published. He does 
not at all deny that the unpublished facts may be stronger 
than the others, but he feels justified in saying that they 
ought not to be expected to be convincing as long as they 
are unknown. We ignore, therefore, the unpublished 
portions. 

In the published seances the investigators themselves 
frankly admit that a large part, perhaps the major part, 
is nonsense or self-evident fact. Another large part is 
equally evidently obtained by fishing from the sitter. 

How are we to explain all this if the controls are really 
spirits? Hyslop works this out in increasingly ingenious 
ways. Some of the nonsense, as when his father's spirit 
asks some one to give him his hat, he thinks is automatic 
speech, a habit left over from this life, into which discar- 
nate spirits may fall, just as we mortals sometimes find 
meaningless fragments of speech, song, etc., coming to our 
lips when we are occupied with other things. Some of the 
nonsense, again, comes simply from the inability to read 
the automatic writing, which is very illegible. Some, and 
probably most, is referable to the difficulty the spirits have 
in using the medium. Hyslop believes that just as the 
medium has to go into a trance state on this side, so the 
spirit has to go into something like the same state on that 

40 



EARLY TRANCES 

side, and that the messages which we get may be compared 
to the talk of dreamers or even the ravings of delirium. 
Or, perhaps the spirits are not in a trance, but something 
about the conditions under which they communicate makes 
consecutive thought difficult. In his seances, every now and 
then Hyslop's father cries out that he is suffocating, and 
must go away for a little while until he is recovered suf- 
ficiently to communicate again. 

Our own experience with the controls was so radically 
different from this that we cannot accept Hyslop 's explana- 
tion. In the first place, our systematic endeavour was to 
keep cool and go slow, and we succeeded save in one sit- 
ting, the result being that the controls also went slowly, 
and there was little confusion or haste save in the one 
sitting. We read the writing as it was written, and kept 
such close tab on it that after the first sitting there were 
few illegible words, so that practically none of the non- 
sense could come from that source. 

Again, Hyslop refers much of the nonsense to the dif- 
ficulty which the controls have in using the medium, and 
his father's spirit complains of suffocation, etc. Here an 
interesting question as to spirit consciousness arises. Could 
the spirits be having great difficulty in controlling the me- 
dium without knowing that they were having difficulty? 
To judge by the reports, they do know in many cases, be- 
cause they complain bitterly of it. But in our sittings, 
from beginning to end there were no such complaints, and 
the spirits were blithely unconscious that most of the time 
they were talking nonsense. This, we believe, is because 
we gave them no hint that they were making themselves 
ridiculous, and they did not know enough to discover it 
without help. In Hyslop's sittings and in most of the 
other published sittings where such complaints occur the 
controls were made aware in some way that they were not 
coming up to the required standards, and then they began 
to complain and to interpose various subsidiary spirits 
6 41 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

between the sitter and the one giving the messages. That 
is, to state it very baldly, these difficulties are excuses given 
by the controls for their failures, excuses which in most 
instances were first invented in the fertile brain of some 
sitter and suggested to the control. 

The fishing also may be explained in different ways. 
Phinuit's fishing meets with little but condemnation, as 
the doctor was at least not the person he claimed to be, 
and did not therefore meet with approval from the Society 
for Psychical Research. But when Pelham and Hyslop, 
Sr., and other spirits ask questions it is assumed that they 
do so oftentimes because they really want the latest news 
from their families, and in part because they want cor- 
roboration, sympathy, etc. So strong is this need of sym- 
pathy if successful results are to be obtained, that these 
investigators have made it a cardinal principle in their 
own studies to adopt a sympathetic and trustful attitude, 
and they insist upon it more and more with other sitters. 
Taciturnity, reserve, cautiousness, not to say distrust, so 
hurt the feelings of the spirits and affect their memories 
that a sitter displaying these qualities is not likely to get 
any interesting results. Now, all this, of course, gives the 
control a better opportunity to fish, and his chances of 
success get better in proportion as the same sitter continues, 
because he learns what his inflections and movements 
mean. This is pre-eminently the case with Mrs. Piper's 
control. His most successful results are obtained with 
those who come for three or more sittings. Not infre- 
quently the first sittings are blanks so far as any valuable 
results are concerned. 

Of course, on the other hand, the Spiritists answer that 
this is just what should be expected. When a new sitter 
comes, and Imperator seeks out his deceased relatives and 
tries to put him into communication with them, the sitter 
is unable at first to read the writing, and the spirits find 
it hard to work through the medium's body. There is 

42 



EARLY TRANCES 

confusion of mind on both sides. But as the spirits be- 
come more conscious of what is wanted of them they 
become more coherent, and if the sitter perseveres for ten 
or twelve or more sittings he may become quite convinced 
that he is talking in truth with dead friends. This may 
be true, but it is at least unfortunate that the same con- 
ditions which favour spirit communication also favour 
fishing. 

It is also a curious and interesting fact that literally 
everything is fish that comes into the control's net. We 
let the control fish. We fairly exuded ideas from every 
pore, giving our fancies free play, and he took up our 
fancies as facts and brought before us the spirits of persons 
who were the product of our own imagination, and only 
that. How could an honest control thus create a spirit 
for our name, or, at least, play off some other spirit as a 
person who never really existed? Nothing could so have 
convinced us of his powers surely, as for him to tell us 
the truth, viz., that no such spirit existed. But still more 
curious is the fact that the control, in this case Hodgson, 
was so oblivious of his relations to Dr. Hall while alive 
as to accept and act throughout on Dr. Hall's statement 
that they had known each other well, the actual fact being 
that they never saw each other but once and had very 
little correspondence. Hodgson remembered imaginary 
incidents related by Dr. Hall and added details of his own, 
and all with the greatest ease, not with the difficulty which 
he would have experienced if he were trying to fit some 
real similar experience into a connection with Dr. Hall, 
where it never belonged, but where he was made to believe 
that it did through our insistence. There was no insistence 
on our part, nothing but a reference, which the control 
took up eagerly. 

That is, to state merely the fact without any attempt at 
explanation, there seems to be no limit to the mistakes 
which the control will make if the sitter assumes a sympa- 

43 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

thetic and encouraging attitude, and a considerable part 
of the content of our sittings consists of mistakes of this 
sort. 

Many of the published sittings are taken up with giv- 
ing first names, and relating various incidents connected 
with these names. Another considerable part is occupied 
in giving medical advice. Finally, a relatively very small 
part is taken up with real test messages, that is, messages 
whose truth is unknown to the sitter, and to no one else 
alive, or only to persons inaccessible to the medium. Since 
even Hyslop admits that these alone are strictly evidential, 
in any scientific sense, we may feel ourselves justified in 
not taking up the other messages in detail, but only in 
considering the possible sources of error in them, or the 
avenues of information open to Mrs. Piper. 

To sum up so far then, those who have become con- 
vinced that Mrs. Piper is in communication with the spirit 
world admit frankly that much of what she says is non- 
sense or non-evidential; that considerable is evidently ob- 
tained through the fishing of the control or is known to 
the normal Mrs. Piper; and that another part might easily 
be inferred by either the control or Mrs. Piper. Accord- 
ingly, they explicitly throw out of court such messages, 
and rest their " scientific " case solely on cross references 
and on messages which they consider to conform to the 
tests. These we shall soon take up. 

Before doing this, however, we must consider certain 
other phases of the sittings. 

We may assume that Mrs. Piper never employs any of 
the common forms of fraud, but that her controls get 
most, if not all, of her information from the sitter. But 
have they any ways of getting information not recognised 
by the Psychical Researchers, who have published accounts 
of their sittings? And are there possible errors in inter- 
pretation, etc., which have not been allowed for? 

One of the very important factors here is the record 

44 



EARLY TRANCES 

of the sittings. Davey's 1 experiments showed most strik- 
ingly the displacements and interpolations of incidents 
which occur even when the account of the sitting is writ- 
ten immediately. Any record, to be considered accurate, 
must have been taken at the time. But no stenographer 
seems to have been employed, even in the earlier Piper 
sittings, when the control spoke instead of writing, and 
so made no record himself, as has been the case in later 
years. Notes were taken in long hand, but, as far as can 
be judged, until Hyslop's sittings no attempt was made 
to take down everything said, especially remarks considered 
foreign to the matter in hand, or remarks of one sitter to 
the other, when two or more were present. But, if the 
principles of conjuring hold at all here, these very remarks 
may be the ones that gave the control his clew, and so, 
when we cannot trace the source of a remark made by the 
control, of some startling bit of information, etc., we are 
justified in at least querying whether our inability to ex- 
plain it may not be due to the imperfect record. 

Hyslop, however, made it a special point to get down 
every word spoken in his sittings, even the most casual 
ones, and we can judge, therefore, whether the mere words 
could have hinted to the control whether he was right or 
wrong. We have, however, no way of judging the sitter's 
manner, his inflections, muscular tensions, etc., through all 
of which he involuntarily shows his opinion of what the 
control is writing. The control is very sensitive to all 
these things. Mrs. Piper's eyes are not only closed but 
turned from the sitter, so that little or no information 
comes from them, but, to compensate, her ears are most 
acute, hear even the slightest sounds and have been trained 
for years to catch all the differences in inflection which 
indicate the sitter's mood. Her right hand, too, every now 
and then explores the sitter 's face or some part of his body, 

i Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. iv, 1886- 
87, pp. 381-495, and Index. 

45 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

and thus gets indications of his muscular tensions which 
doubtless convey knowledge. 

Hyslop says that in some of the sittings he spoke not 
a word from beginning to end. Nevertheless, some one 
who spoke had to be there, and this person, usually Dr. 
Hodgson, betrayed through his voice his estimate of the 
accuracy of the control's statements, this estimate being in 
part determined through his receiving suggestions from 
Hyslop 's appearance, manner, etc. In short, all the experi- 
ments in telepathy have shown emphatically and repeat- 
edly that between even people in the normal state, the pos- 
sibilities of involuntary suggestion are infinitely greater 
than were formerly supposed, and when one of the parties 
is in the abnormal state of trance, with the heightened 
suggestibility characteristic of it, these possibilities are 
greatly increased. 

We must, therefore, throw out of consideration in the 
Piper case all messages whose content was already known 
to the sitter, such as family names, because the sitter may 
involuntarily have aided the medium. 

This brings us back once more to the so-called test mes- 
sages, that is, messages whose content was unknown to the 
sitter or to any living person accessible to the medium, 
but which were later verified. The incident given in any 
such message must be of so definite a character that it 
could not be confused with a similar incident known to the 
sitter or medium, and it must be so definitely recorded at 
the time it is given that the sitter cannot later read into 
it connections not indicated at the time. 



CHAPTER IV 

TEST MESSAGES 

In the development of the Piper case test messages have 
taken two forms: the sealed envelope test, and messages 
given in the course of a regular sitting. In the sealed en- 
velope test a written message is sealed in an envelope. In 
some cases the sitter or the medium holds the envelope, 
while in others it is in the keeping of a trustworthy per- 
son. Sometimes the sitter knows the message, but in the 
ideal test no one but the writer of the message knows it, 
and the test is not given until the spirit of the writer ap- 
pears at some sitting after his death and gives the message, 
which is then verified by opening the envelope. 

At one time much was expected from this test, and vari- 
ous members of the Society for Psychical Research wrote 
messages and put them into the Society archives, to 
be kept until their spirits should appear and order the 
envelopes unsealed. The test has been given to the Piper 
controls on various occasions and has uniformly failed. A 
notable case is the Hannah Wild incident. Hannah Wild, 
before her death, wrote a letter to her sister, and told no 
one what it contained. After her death this letter was 
eventually put in Professor James's hands for safe-keep- 
ing, until the appropriate test could be made. In due time 
the sister went to Mrs. Piper, and the spirit of Hannah 
Wild appeared, and when asked if she remembered about 
this letter, said that she did. (She spoke through Phinuit, 
who claimed to repeat her messages to her sister. ) Phinuit 
said that he could find out what was in the letter, and 
at length dictated a long letter which he said was the one 

47 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

in James's possession. It was in no respect like it. Sev- 
eral other times, at intervals, lie renewed the attempt, and 
was as unsuccessful as at first. 

Another incident equally notable occurred in connec- 
tion with the Imperator group of controls. Before these 
controls took possession of Mrs. Piper, they had been the 
controls of W. Stainton Moses, an English clergyman and 
one of the best-known English Spiritists. They told 
him that the names which they gave, Imperator, Rector, 
Doctor, and Prudens, were those by which they desired to 
be known to the public, but that in reality they were cer- 
tain deceased persons, some of whom he had himself known 
while alive. He wrote the true names in his diary, but 
kept them entirely secret during his life. At his death his 
diary came into the hands of P. W. H. Myers, who was 
then the only person alive who knew whom these spirits 
claimed to be. Now, when the spirit of Moses appeared in 
Mrs. Piper's trance, Hodgson proposed, as a test of his 
identity, that he should tell him these names, which could 
be verified by Myers, and which would be so complete a 
test as to stagger all incredulity. Moses accepted the test 
with apparent confidence and gave three of the names, 
which Hodgson sent at once to Myers. Not so much as a 
letter in any of them was correct! 

All other such tests have failed also with Mrs. Piper, 
and yet it is difficult to see why they should fail, if the 
spirit hypothesis is correct. If the person while still living 
puts into the letter something of strong emotional interest 
to him, some permanent interest, it seems strange that such 
a memory does not survive the shock of dissolution when 
such trivial things as his once possessing a brown-handled 
penknife and wearing a thin black coat remain. 

The only case on record where a test message planned 
before death was correctly given by the deceased spirit is 
the following, reported by James (Proceedings of the Soci- 
ety for Psychical Research, vol. viii, pp. 248-51). In 

48 



TEST MESSAGES 

Kingston, Mass., lived a brother and sister named Benja. 
The brother knew that he would shortly die, and so he 
arranged these tests: he carved out a piece of soft brick 
into a slender form, broke it, and gave his sister one part, 
hiding the other himself. He also wrote a letter and sealed 
it and gave it to his sister, telling her that she must not 
open it until his spirit returned and gave her permission. 

For months after his decease his mother and sister re- 
ceived no satisfactory message, until they began sitting at 
home, when they got table-tilting, spelling out the alphabet. 
The table then spelled out, ' ' You '11 find that piece of brick 
in the cabinet under the tomahawk, ' ' and sure enough, there 
it was, although the cabinet had not been touched by any 
one since her brother had locked it and put away the key. 
Then the table spelled out for the letter, " Julia! Do 
right and be happy. Benja." And this was just what the 
sealed letter said, the words being exactly correct. 

Dr. Hodgson investigated the case and had a letter 
from a clergyman of Kingston saying that the sister 's word 
was to be trusted, the sister being the one who reported the 
case to the Society for Psychical Eesearch. But the mother 
had died in the meantime, and there is nothing to indicate 
how far she may have contributed to the table-tilting, or 
how far both may have had hints as to the hiding place 
of the brick and the contents of the letter. It is not neces- 
sary to assume conscious fraud to explain such a case, but 
only subconscious inferences made by the mind through a 
period of several months of wonder and guessing. 

Let us take up now in detail all the test messages given 
in the published records, and see how many of them are 
in reality inexplicable by the ordinary laws of the mind. 

When Mrs. Piper first went to England, in 1889, Sir 
Oliver Lodge was present at twenty-two sittings, other peo- 
ple also usually being present, but sometimes no one else. 
Extraordinary precautions were taken at first to prevent 
Mrs. Piper having any information about the affairs of 

49 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the sitters. She stayed in Sir Oliver's house, met few peo- 
ple, the servants were all new ones from the country, who 
presumably knew nothing of the family, and the family 
Bible and albums were all put away. Nevertheless, in 
course of time Mrs. Piper gave the Lodges considerable in- 
formation about their family, etc. 

We must remember, however, that none of these sit- 
tings were stenographically reported, and that in some cases 
notes were not even taken at the time, but the sitting was 
written up afterward from memory. The records are 
therefore liable to all the lapses, interpolations, and errors 
which Davey disclosed. When what is said and done in a 
sitting has been sifted, parts omitted, and only parts which 
seem important to the sitter inserted, it is impossible 
even to conjecture how much fishing and hesitation there 
were from the control, and how much the sitter revealed. 

Sir Oliver himself gives in all forty-two test messages 
for the twenty-two sittings, in which the information was 
unknown to, forgotten, or unknowable by the sitter. They 
are as follows : 

1. Phinuit told Mrs. Lodge that at one time her father 
had hurt his right leg below the knee, at the same time rub- 
bing the place. 

Mrs. Lodge knew that there had been a hurt, but be- 
lieved it to be above the knee. On inquiry, however, she 
found Phinuit correct. {Proceedings of the Society for 
Psychical Research, vol. vi, p. 467 et seq., for all these 
examples.) 

Mrs. Lodge may have involuntarily given Phinuit in- 
formation as to the hurt — at any rate, since the record is 
incomplete, it cannot be proved that she did not. The exact 
location may easily have been a guess, as a person guessing 
would usually choose the lower leg, because it is more liable 
to injuries, sprains, varicose veins, etc., than the upper leg. 

2. One sitter, Mr. Gonner, arranged with his sister to 
have his mother do some unusual thing at the time of his 

50 



TEST MESSAGES 

sitting, and asked Phinuit to tell what she was doing. 
Phinuit said, making appropriate gestures, that she was 
fixing her hair in a room with a cot in it, so high, that 
she put on her wrap and lifted the lid of a box on a stand. 
On inquiry it was found that half an hour earlier than this 
the mother was putting on her things to take a drive, going 
through movements similar to those described. 

Even if we assume that half an hour was necessary in 
order to " get the message through," it would not be re- 
markable for Mrs. Piper to make such a lucky guess, if 
she had the usual impression of Americans that all English- 
women are fond of walking, even on rainy days. The 
really unusual thing, namely, that Mrs. Gonner took a 
short ride instead of a walk, was not mentioned. 

3. Phinuit told Sir Oliver that his Cousin Charley had 
been made quite ill by the bird he had eaten, localising and 
describing the illness by gestures. 

On writing to Canada, where this cousin lived, Sir 
Oliver found that he had shot a prairie chicken out of sea- 
son and eaten it, and that he had been ill with la grippe. 
The only true part, then, refers to eating the prairie 
chicken. But when we know that the sitting was held the 
day after Christmas, even this has no value. In America 
nearly everyone eats some sort of " bird " on Christmas 
Day, and many of us are made ill by them, whether the 
" bird " is turkey, chicken, duck, or prairie chicken. 
Phinuit missed a great opportunity in not stating explicitly 
that Charley ate prairie chicken and was ill with la grippe. 

4. Phinuit told Mrs. Thompson that her Uncle William 
broke his arm, and, upon her dissenting, said that he broke 
his leg below the knee. This was not, however, verified, 
and so is not evidential. 

5. At various times Sir Oliver's Uncle Jerry appeared 
and gave incidents to prove his identity. Out of quite a 
number two were wholly correct, one partly so, and others 
unverifiable. He said that when he was a boy he once 

51 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

killed a snake and his brother Robert kept the skin. This 
was verified. 

6. He also described how he and some brothers came 
near getting drowned in the mill race. This, too, was 
verified. 

7. Uncle Jerry told, through Phinnit, how his brother 
Bob once killed a cat in Smith's field, and tied it by the 
tail to a fence to see it kick before it died. Sir Oliver 
found that his Uncle Charles did once kill a cat, but not 
that he tied it to a fence, nor was it in Smith's field; but 
there was a Smith 's field near the creek. 

Uncle Jerry's attempts to prove his identity by these 
incidents are generally admitted to have little value. All 
boys kill cats and snakes, and many of them come near 
drowning or think they do. Even the naming of Smith's 
field does not seem to us so remarkable as it does to Sir 
Oliver, who argues at great length against the probability 
of Mrs. Piper learning about this field by sending an agent 
there. Why is any such supposition necessary 1 In the 
first place the record of the sitting does not indicate how 
readily this name came out, or how distinctly it was spoken, 
so that the original notes may not give exactly what Phinuit 
said. But, further, Sir Oliver found, on sending an agent 
there himself, that there never had been any such field, 
located as the still living uncle, who remembered it, located 
it, and that the only approximation to it was a field which 
had once had a smithy in it. The old inhabitants said that 
various fields had been called Smith's fields, from their 
owners, but none had ever been so recorded in their titles. 
We have, then, two possibilities : either Phinuit was at his 
old tricks of guessing, using one of the most common Eng- 
lish names in his guess, or else the living uncle's memory 
had played him false when it was suggested to him that 
when a boy he had played in Smith's field. 

8. Uncle Jerry said that he had made some marks in 
his watch in a certain place where, on opening the watch, 

52 



TEST MESSAGES 

Sir Oliver found a landscape engraved, but he thinks that 
some of the lines were " unnecessarily deep," and were, 
presumably, those referred to by Uncle Jerry. This, of 
course, is not evidential, since we are not certain that the 
marks were not in the landscape originally. 

9. A chain was given to Phinuit, who asked for the 
wrappers and letter that came with it. He held them to 
the top of his head, by degrees brushed away the blank 
papers, and then, after various trials and corrections, gave 
out: " Is there J. N. W. here? [That is, these words were 
quoted from the paper.] Poole. Then there's Sefton. 
S-e-f-t-o-n-. Poole, hair. Yours truly, J. N. W. That's 
it. I send hair. Poole. J. N. W. Do you understand 
that? " 

Lodge afterward found that the letter contained the 
words Sefton Drive, and Cooke written to look like Poole. 
It also said, " I send you some hair," and ended, " Yours 
sincerely, J. B. W.," the B looking something like an N. 

Unfortunately, Sir Oliver does not state whether the 
letter was so held that it was absolutely impossible for 
the entranced Mrs. Piper to have caught glimpses of it, 
and especially he does not describe the manipulations of 
it during the ' ' various trials and corrections ' ' to which 
he refers, so that we are free to choose between super- 
normal powers and her having caught glimpses of the writ- 
ing. (In these sittings the control spoke, and the eyes were 
partly closed.) 

10. Phinuit said that one of Sir Oliver's children was 
having trouble in the calf of one leg. This 'was not known 
at the time but developed later. 

No supernormal knowledge is necessary here to so keen 
an observer as Mrs. Piper and Phinuit. The child may per- 
haps have complained in her hearing, or may have given 
indications of trouble which she was shrewd enough to in- 
terpret. It is not at all uncommon for outsiders to note 
such things earlier than the child's own family do. 

53 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

11. Mr. Kendall was told of a book that he had as a 
keepsake of his dead friend, Agnes. He did not remember 
this book at the time, but did six months later. 

Many men with dear friends have books as keepsakes. 

12. Sir Oliver asked of a certain friend, " Is her hair 
short or long ? ' ' and Phinuit implied that it was long, con- 
trary to Sir Oliver's idea, but correctly. 

Phinuit would naturally say a woman's hair was long, 
if he were just guessing. 

13. Sir Oliver was told of private affairs of Mr. E., 
unknown to him at the time but verified later. As we do 
not know the incidents, however, we cannot consider them 
as evidential. 

14. Phinuit described an old lady then with Sir 
Oliver's Uncle Robert, correctly, but all other items were 
wrong or indefinite, and we do not know whether Sir Oliver 
knew the lady. 

15. Sir Oliver was told that the last place his fa- 
ther went to was Bob's, and he afterward verified this, 
but the term " last place " is indefinite, and was inter- 
preted by Sir Oliver to mean the last place he went to 
on a visit. 

16. Phinuit identified a stick given to him as W. T.'s 
last stick, which was correct, but unknown to Sir Oliver. 
But are not the last possessions of a person those most 
likely to be kept, whether they are in themselves valuable 
or not? 

17. Mr. Lund's sister was called Margie, a pet name 
he had forgotten about, but after Phinuit knew her real 
name, Margaret, he would naturally guess Margie as a pet 
name. 

18. Phinuit told Mr. Thompson his mother had a cold 
in one ear, and this proved true — a comparatively safe 
prediction to make of an elderly lady in the winter. 

19. Sir Oliver was told of a fight his Uncle Frank was 
once in with a certain boy named John Rooke. This uncle 

54 



TEST MESSAGES 

wrote him that he knew he had been in a fight, but could 
not remember the name of the boy, and this leaves the only 
valuable part of the statement unverified, since most boys 
get into fights. 

20. Mr. Thompson was told to give a message from Mr. 
Rich to his father, and that his father was troubled with 
giddiness. This was true, but may have been an inference 
from other knowledge. 

21. Phinuit recalled to Mr. Clarke his Uncle John. Mr. 
Clarke denied that he had such an uncle, but remembered 
the next day that he had. 

John is one of the very common English names, and the 
chances are good that anybody will have some relative, 
near or distant, of that name. That this uncle was not 
close to Mr. Clarke is evidenced by his first denial. 

22. Phinuit told Mr. Clarke that he had some red 
stamped tickets in his pocket. Mr. Clarke denied this, 
but afterward remembered two cheques stamped in red. 
He is sure that Phinuit could not have seen these, but 
Mr. Davey's seances make us distrust such positive as- 
sertions, and wonder whether there was not some forgotten 
opportunity. 

23. Phinuit told Mrs. Yerrall that her sister had been 
" filled up with quinine " two years before. Mrs. Yer- 
rall denied this but found later that it was a fact. She 
herself says, however, that quinine is too common a remedy 
for colds for Phinuit 's assertion to be counted more than 
a guess. 

24. Mrs. Yerrall was told that a friend, Carrie, had had 
a baby sister. She later verified this, but still it is hardly 
evidential, for one of the stock guesses of the professional 
medium is as to dead baby relatives, which are to be found 
in nearly every family. 

25. She was also told that one grandfather had a sister 
Susan, which was later verified, but here, too, the oppor- 
tunity for guessing is good, Susan being a common English 

55 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

name, and perhaps being inadvertently referred to before 
Mrs. Piper. 

26. Also, that a man known to her as Jasper was also 
named George, which was true, and unknown to Mrs. Ver- 
rall. This would seem to imply some knowledge of Mrs. 
Verrall's family, which she is convinced Mrs. Piper did 
not possess. 

27. She was also told that her brother had a hurt on 
his big toe. She found that this brother had had such a 
hurt six months before on a tramping tour, and that an- 
other brother had one there then. But if Mrs. Piper knew 
that the family was addicted to tramping tours, as is easily 
possible, such a statement would be a very easy inference. 

28. Mr. Browning was told that he had a nephew then 
in Philadelphia. He knew that a nephew was in America, 
and upon inquiry found that he was in Philadelphia. 
The Researchers themselves attach no importance to this 
incident, because on various occasions Phinuit used Phila- 
delphia as a convenient location for persons whose where- 
abouts he did not know. 

29. Mr. Sidgwick was told that his wife was in a large 
chair talking to a lady, and that she had something on her 
head. This was correct, but the person with her was in- 
correctly described, and she was incorrectly located. Mrs. 
Piper was visiting the Sidgwicks at this time, and knew 
their house and habits, and knew, furthermore, that this 
was an experiment. Under these conditions the guess has 
just about the correct factors that one might expect. 

30. Mr. Deronco was told that his mother was lying 
down, not in bed, not far away, in another person's house. 
Later he found that she was lying down at this particular 
time, but in her own home in Germany. Phinuit knew 
before this that she was subject to headaches, and the habit 
of lying down is rather characteristic of the feeble state of 
health implied by them. 

31. After much hesitation Mr. Deronco was also told 

56 



TEST MESSAGES 

that his brother was painting a profile picture, which 
proved to be true. 

But from the description of the incident the reader in- 
fers that Mr. Deronco expected his brother to be painting 
such a picture, and if so, the case would not properly fall 
into the class we are considering here. 

32. Miss X. was told of a baby brother, William, whom 
she had forgotten about but later remembered. But here, 
as before, the guess as to a dead baby is rather safe, and the 
name William is very common and comparatively safe. If 
Miss X. had not remembered the dead brother she probably 
would have recalled some other relative of this name, and 
Phinuit could easily have explained that he was some one 
else's dead brother. 

33. Mr. F. was told of an Uncle William whom he had 
forgotten. But later he remembered a great-uncle William, 
whose picture resembled the description given by Phinuit. 
But this is correct only if uncle and great-uncle are 
identified. 

34. Mr. Leaf was told that he had two letters from Mr. 
Gurney in his desk, about an engagement for work and 
study. Mr. Leaf found that he did have two, but they were 
about Mr. Gurney 's engagement to marry. But Mrs. Piper 
knew that Mr. Gurney and Mr Leaf had known each other 
well, and it was a very safe guess that after Mr. Gurney 's 
death Mr. Leaf would keep his letters, and, naturally, in 
his desk. 

35. Mrs. Sidgwick was told that her husband was sit- 
ting with his feet up, with various other details, all the rest 
being incorrect. Mrs. Piper was then visiting the Sidg- 
wicks, and doubtless had enough knowledge of Dr. Sidg- 
wick to make this much a safe guess. 

36. Dr. Sidgwick was told that Mrs. Sidgwick was re- 
clining with a black cloth thing over her head, reading. 
She was, but had a doctor's scarlet hood on. The same 
explanation holds here as for the previous incident, No. 35. 

7 57 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

37. Mrs. Verrall was told that Mr. Verrall was sitting 
at a desk and had just laid down a book to talk to a visitor, 
but the visitor 's acts were wrongly described. 

38. Another sitter, Mrs. B., was told that Mrs. Verrall 
was then looking into a glass globe and that her daughter 
was with her, which was correct. This incident and the 
previous one depend for their value on how much knowl- 
edge Mrs. Piper had of the Verrall family. Doubtless, 
she knew that Mrs. Verrall was a crystal gazer — at least 
her published reference to this sort of thing could have 
given Mrs. Piper this knowledge — and the other statements 
could be made if she had only a slight knowledge of the 
family. 

39. Mr. Gale was told that at one time one of his grand- 
fathers had been lame. This was true, but why could it 
not have been merely a lucky hit ? 

40. Miss Johnson was told that her brother was reading 
with his feet up, in a corner room, with a map or picture 
to the left and a desk to the right. The comparatively de- 
tailed account here makes chance seem improbable, and 
therefore makes the incident difficult to explain, unless there 
was some way for Mrs. Piper to have learned about this 
room. 

These exhaust the incidents in Sir Oliver's twenty-two 
sittings, which were unknown to the sitter but were after- 
ward verified. On the other hand, there were very many 
misses and unverifiable statements, even Uncle Jerry, whose 
memory for his childhood seemed so vivid, mentioning vari- 
ous occurrences which none of the other living relatives 
could recall. Other statements were definitely known to be 
false, and others were obviously nonsensical. 

One curious instance of error is this: The father of a 
Mr. Wilson purported to be present sending messages to 
his son, and, among many non-evidential statements, he said 
that his son first thought of being a doctor. The son him- 
self said that he never had thought anything of the sort, 

58 



TEST MESSAGES 

and Sir Oliver notes that he himself had thought he had, 
and remarks that this looks like a ease of thought trans- 
ference. Doubtless, there was thought transference, but it 
was done by Sir Oliver involuntarily betraying his opinion 
to Phinuit, I would venture to say. 

The impressions made by these sittings varied consid- 
erably with the sitters. Sir Oliver was greatly impressed, 
and wrote, " Undoubtedly, Mrs. Piper in the trance state 
has access to some abnormal sources of information, and 
is for the time cognisant of facts which happened long ago 
or at a distance. " The only question in his mind was 
whether the best theory was that of clairvoyance, telepathy, 
or spirits. 

Mr. Lund, who had one sitting, wrote, " What im- 
pressed me most was the way in which she seemed to feel 
for information, rarely telling me anything of importance 
right off the reel, but carefully fishing and then following 
up a lead. It seemed to me that when she was on the right 
tack the nervous and uncontrollable movement of one's 
muscles gave her the signal that she was right and might 
steam ahead.' ' 

In the published Hodgson sittings, running up to No- 
vember, 1891, 1 have been able to find but thirty statements 
unknown to the sitter at the time of the sitting, but later 
verified : 

1. Hodgson was told that his youngest sister would soon 
have another child, a boy, which happened within a month. 
Just before this Phinuit had given the number of her chil- 
dren correctly, but had been allowed to infer that he was 
wrong, and had then crawfished and explained his state- 
ment as meaning something else, making this last predic- 
tion look like a random hit which happened to strike the 
bull's eye. 

2. S. A. Hopkins was told that a man named Vaughan, 
who appeared from the spirit world to send a message, had 
been a little lame. This was true but Mr. Hopkins had 

59 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

never noticed it. How much chance was there that Mrs. 
Piper had heard of this man? 

3. At the opening of one sitting, Phinuit said that he 
had been with Bessie, who had been writing a few minutes 
before. This was correct. 

4. Two days later, Phinuit said that Bessie had been 
reading a funny book, a life of somebody. Also, that she 
had called on an old friend of her dead sister, and that she 
had a friend named Severance. These statements were 
made to Hodgson and verified by Bessie. She did not, how- 
ever, actually go to see the friend, but wanted to, and wrote 
him a letter. 

We are left in ignorance, however, how much Mrs. Piper 
knew about Bessie, and how much these statements might 
be inferred, from casual remarks made by Hodgson, from 
Bessie's habitual mode of living, etc. 

The fact that all of these Hodgson sittings were held in 
Boston or near it, and that most of the people referred to 
came from that vicinity, so increases the chances of Mrs. 
Piper having accidental knowledge about them that the 
difficulty of giving a convincing test message is enormously 
increased. 

5. Mr. Robertson James was told that an aunt had died 
about two o'clock the night before. She had died, but 
about twelve, and her death had been momentarily ex- 
pected. The sitter, who had not heard of her death at the 
time, may have betrayed involuntarily the serious charac- 
ter of her illness, and Phinuit took a bold chance in guess- 
ing, getting the time wrong. 

6. Mr. A. Y. was told that a certain person was fatally 
ill, which was later verified. But again we are not told 
whether this may not have been obtained from the papers 
or learned in some normal way. 

7. Miss Savage had three locks of hair in separate en- 
velopes, which she mixed so that she did not know which 
envelope she drew. Phinuit identified each. But we are 

60 



TEST MESSAGES 

not told whether the locks were identical in size and shape, 
so as to convey information through tonch to Miss Savage, 
or whether the envelopes were thick enough so that no sus- 
picions were aroused in her mind as to which lock she was 
giving Phinuit. If she had only a partially subconscious 
belief it might be sufficient to guide Phinuit, with his hyper- 
sensitiveness to suggestions. 

8. W. H. Savage was given a message from Robert West 
to his brother, apologising for an attack made on him in 
the Advance, which Mr. Savage did not know had been 
made. 

But Mrs. Piper might have seen this copy of the Ad- 
vance. 

9. M. I. Savage was told by Robert West, the spirit, 
that he was buried at Alton, 111., and that the text on his 
stone was, " Fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." This 
was verified later. 

But we are not assured that this information, too, could 
not have been secured from some paper. 

10. At this same sitting the Rev. C. L. Goodell claimed 
to be present, whom Savage knew scarcely any. Savage 
found that he had died. 

Again, we must ask why Mrs. Piper might not have 
learned this incidentally from the papers? 

11. Miss Z. was told that her brother's friend, Ned, was 
speaking, that her brother had been kind to him and had 
spent a night with him just before his death. This was 
true, and though Miss Z. did know that her brother had 
been kind to a poor boy who had died of consumption, she 
did not know his name. The statement, however, is not as 
exact as could be desired, since Ned is a nickname which 
might stand for several names. 

12. Miss Webster went to get information about a lost 
brother, who had not been heard from in three years. 
Phinuit said that they would hear within three weeks, first 
from a friend and then from the brother, and that he would 

61 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

come home. The letters came within the time, and later 
the boy. 

This is so curiously exact that one is tempted to ask 
whether the prediction was written down at the time 
Phinuit made it, or only after the boy came home. 

13. Miss A. M. R. 's spirit friend H. asked her how she 
liked the little drab-coloured book which she had been read- 
ing with another person. The book was covered with a 
paper cover and Miss A. M. R. did not know the colour of 
the cover, but found upon examination that it was drab. 

But is it certain that Miss A. M. R. had not referred to 
this book before Mrs. Piper, and that Mrs. Piper knew noth- 
ing of the book? 

14. A friend of Miss A. M. R. was told that she would 
not marry a certain gentleman with whom she was then 
very friendly. Later, this gentleman had a hemorrhage 
and died a few months after their engagement. 

But Phinuit did not say the gentleman would die, or 
die of a hemorrhage, and at the time of the prediction, 
which was before the engagement, the lady might have been 
so doubtful of her own feelings that Phinuit 's prediction 
could have been made on that ground alone. 

15. Mr. A. J. C. was told that his niece had a humour or 
breaking out, and found that she really had. 

Such humours are not very uncommon, and perhaps 
there was a tendency to it in the family which Mrs. Piper 
knew or inferred. 

16. Mrs. M. N. was told that her husband's father would 
die very suddenly, in a few weeks, and he did. 

But previous to this, Phinuit had told Mr. M. N. that a 
near relative would die in about six weeks, and that he 
would get some pecuniary advantage from it. This was too 
vague to be evidential, but Mr. M. N. asked if Phinuit meant 
his father — showing his own fears — and Phinuit declined 
to say. We do not even know whether Mrs. Piper knew 
anything at all about the family, or could infer that there 

62 



TEST MESSAGES 

were aged relatives in feeble health. Two days after the 
father s death, Mr. M. N. went again to Mrs. Piper, and at 
that time Phinuit told him that he had tried before his 
father's death to persuade him to do certain things about 
his property, and still later, Mr. M. N. 's sister said that for 
two days before he died their father had complained of an 
old man who sat at the foot of the bed and insisted on talk- 
ing about his private affairs. 

Here we have a genuine ghost story, and we ought to 
have also a Committee on Hallucinations to investigate it. 
TVe do not know at present (a) whether Mrs. Piper knew 
much about the M. N. family; (b) whether the sister con- 
sulted her as well as the brother, and so perhaps betrayed 
facts; (c) whether the sister visited her after the father's 
death before the brother did, and betrayed the father's 
dying hallucination. 

It is a beautiful story, but needs investigation before it 
can be accepted. 

17. Again, Phinuit told Mr. M. N. that within two weeks 
he would get a professional offer either from a man 
named French or a Frenchman. The letter came, from a 
Frenchman. 

The prophecy was designedly ambiguous, and demanded 
but little knowledge of Mr. M. N. 's business. 

18. Phinuit told Mr. M. N. that some relative had 
hurt her thumb. Later it was found that a cousin in Phil- 
adelphia had. 

Out of all the female relatives belonging to any man, 
if they do their own housework or sewing, the chances are 
very good that one if not more of them will have " hurt " 
thumbs at any specified time. 

19. Mr. J. Rogers Rich was told that in a few months 
he would hear from Frank Lennox, who had gone across 
the water to " Al — Aula — " and when Mr. Rich suggested 
Australia. Phinuit was first puzzled but then assented. 

Within a year a letter came from the friend, saying 

63 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

that he had been in Alaska, the inference being that 
Phinuit began to write Alaska, but was diverted by Mr. 
Rich. 

Even if Phinuit did begin to write Alaska, it would be 
an easy guess. 

20. A lady who had had a loss from fire wished to find 
the incendiary. Phinuit described the suspected person to 
Mr. Rich, who did not know him, but the description is not 
given in the account, so that we cannot judge as to its de- 
tail, and can neither accept nor reject the incident. 

21. A spirit friend told Mr. Rich that his cousin was 
visiting his brother, which was verified. 

22. Phinuit told Mr. Rich that the reason why a pre- 
scription which he had given him was not helping him was 
that his cook was not preparing it according to directions. 
This proved true. 

23. Mr. Rich was told that he had had a baby sister, 
prematurely born, some years before his own birth. This 
proved to be true. 

Mr. Rich was greatly impressed by Mrs. Piper and went 
frequently to her, so that involuntarily he probably gave 
her considerable information about his family, and she 
may have learned more outside, or may have had enough 
information from him to infer many of the things which 
he believed so surprising. Our lack of information as to 
how far she had knowledge of the family — not sought by 
her, but incidentally obtained and perhaps forgotten by 
her upper consciousness — must make us attach little im- 
portance to these statements. 

24. Mrs. C. was told that a little elderly lady in her 
surroundings would soon die. She thought that her sister 
was meant, but later an aunt died. 

Here again the description was evidently indefinite, and 
so has no evidential value. 

25. Dr. Hodgson and Mrs. Holmes tried a series of ex- 
periments in clairvoyance. At the time of the sitting Mrs. 

64 



TEST MESSAGES 

Holmes was to write out what she was doing, and at the 
same time Phinuit was to tell Dr. Hodgson what she was 
doing. Several sittings were devoted to this. At the first 
sitting, from 11.30 to 12.30, Phinuit gave a running descrip- 
tion of what he saw Mrs. Holmes doing, which was sup- 
posed to be in the main correct, with two or three false 
incidents, and others omitted. He said that she had been 
putting some flowers in a vase, trimming off the dead leaves, 
that she had had the pillows changed in her room and some 
thing about the bed changed, that she was writing (true, 
but with a planchette), that " Charles " was on the sheet 
in front of her, etc. 

26. In the second sitting to test this the incidents were 
numbered, and out of nineteen the following three were cor- 
rect : That Mrs. Holmes had a slight headache ; that she had 
a little rheumatism in one leg ; that the daughter was think- 
ing about " going away." (The daughter intended to 
move into a new house in the fall. ) 

We must note that no such careful notes were taken of 
the first sitting as of the second. 

Two or three other incidents were given which might 
have referred to what the daughter was doing at the time, 
but not to Mrs. Holmes, and one or two others had hap- 
pened weeks before. 

27. At the third sitting, out of thirty-nine items seven 
were correct, but we are not told how many of these Hodg 
son knew. They were : That Mrs. Holmes had lost a little 
baby, stillborn or nearly so; that her mother was a little 
deaf ; that she had a letter from Hodgson on her desk which 
she was consulting; that she was consulting a watch and 
writing figures; that a little body of water was near her; 
Phinuit saw the name Margaret (her daughter's), that she 
liked Miss P. Several other things were vague, or had 
occurred at other times. It was also correct that she put 
a red, wraplike thing over her shoulders, and wrote in a 
great hurry. Then Phinuit told a series of things, like 

65 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the daughter's going out, the mother walking about the 
room, gathering flowers, etc., but omitted that she arranged 
the flower stems to write Phinuit, that her writing was 
to him. 

28. At a sitting with Mrs. Holmes, Phinuit described 
things that Hodgson was then doing, none of which hap- 
pened at that time, though some did earlier, save that he 
went for a drive. Mrs. Piper knew where Hodgson was 
and whom he was visiting. 

29. At still another sitting with Miss Edmunds, Phinuit 
tried to tell what Mrs. Holmes and Hodgson were doing, 
but was very far from the mark. 

30. Miss A. took to Phinuit a locket, ring, and watch, 
of whose antecedents she knew nothing and which had no 
initials on them. The owner of the locket could not verify 
any of the names Phinuit gave in connection with it; 
other references he thinks may be to relatives he has heard 
of, and he considered the description Phinuit gave of him- 
self, the owner, good. 

Phinuit also said that the influence of the ring was 
bad, that some one connected with it had died of cancer, and 
that some one else was insane. 

The owner's father really had died of cancer, and he 
had a sister who had been made idiotic by a fright. 

Phinuit gave the names of John, Joseph, and Elizabeth 
in connection with the watch, and the owner identified them, 
but could not verify the incidents told about them. 

Now observe here that Phinuit actually gave nothing 
(except, perhaps, the names) that he might not have ob- 
tained from the sitter. The description of the owner was 
obtained doubtless through the usual processes of fishing. 
Did the sitter know of the owner's father and sister or 
not? If so, the only salient points are explained. The 
right guesses of names in connection with the watch are 
surely counterbalanced by the wrong ones in connection 
with the locket. 

66 



TEST MESSAGES 

Certain very obvious comments may be made upon all 
these thirty cases. First of all, Mrs. Piper was at home 
in Boston in these sittings, and no one can say certainly 
how much she may have known about any given sitter. 
The sitters were introduced, of course, under assumed 
names, but she expected that, and the first task of the 
control was to discover the sitter's first name and then his 
last. This is not so difficult as it sounds, especially as in 
those days the sitter often held one of Mrs. Piper's hands, 
and his involuntary twitchings showed when she was hit- 
ting the right letters. The name once discovered, in some 
instances at least, the control would have some knowledge 
of the sitter and could make inferences and reach conclu- 
sions without difficulty. 

In 1897 Dr. Hodgson published accounts of further 
seances in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search, and at that time stated that he had in all records of 
500 sittings, of which 130 were first sittings and the sitters 
presumably unknown to Mrs. Piper. But again he warns 
us that many of the most evidential parts are too private 
to be published, and he also states that he does not publish 
in full all of the other sittings, but selects only those which 
he considers typical either of good or poor sittings, or im- 
portant because of their evidential value. Furthermore, he 
has no stenographic reports of most of these — although at 
this time Phinuit spoke instead of writing and so making 
his own record — but took notes himself in longhand, filling 
them out afterward, or even accepting an account written 
by the sitter weeks or sometimes months after the sitting. 

Such incompleteness and inaccuracy seem inexcusable in 
a person who knew, as Dr. Hodgson did, the errors and 
illusions of memory disclosed by Mr. Davey's seances. 
What do scientists think of an experimenter who omits to 
describe some of the conditions of his experiment, or who 
writes it up from some one else's account later on? The 
parts which Dr. Hodgson considers unimportant may be 

67 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the key to the sittings, from the psychologist's or psychi- 
atrist's standpoint. 

For these reasons I should feel justified in rejecting any 
so-called test message solely on the ground that the record 
might be incomplete, but it is interesting to see how, even 
accepting the incomplete account, there are very few test 
messages, and all of them easily explicable. They are as 
follows : 

1 and 2. Phinuit told Miss Hartshorn that he got the 
name Sarah. At first she could not recall any relative of 
that name but afterward remembered an aunt. He also 
asked her what was the matter with her mother 's foot, and 
then she remembered some dropsical trouble that her 
mother had. 

3. Phinuit told her that the owner of a certain box used 
to carry little round things in it to eat, cowchoose. Later 
she remembered that the things were camomile flowers to 
chew. 

4. He also asked her if she knew Kittie. She did not, 
but after hard thinking recalled a child friend of that 
name who had died years before. 

These are all too far from the mark to be of much value. 
The shape and size of the box would show its general pur- 
pose, and the name was incorrect. The proper names were 
not especially apt, since the sitter had a hard time recall- 
ing either. 

5. Phinuit told Miss Macleod that Agnes would be ill. 
This was in March, and in the fall Agnes was ill for the 
first time since childhood and was in bed for a week. 

If Agnes had fallen ill within six days instead of six 
months the coincidence would be more convincing. 

6. He also told her that the last thing Etta saw on 
dying was her mother's face. The sitter had supposed 
Etta's eyes closed, but later found Phinuit 's statement true. 

But Phinuit says nothing about Etta's eyes at the time 
death itself occurred, and surely it would be natural for 

68 



TEST MESSAGES 

him to guess that the person who would be closest to the 
dying child would be the mother. 

7. He also predicted the death of the sitter's uncle, 
who was at that time well, as far as she knew. Two weeks 
later the death occurred. 

This is a striking coincidence, but we do not know how 
much Mrs. Piper knew about the family, on which she could 
make an inference. 

8 and 9. Phinuit gave Dr. Hodgson a message from John 
Mc. to his brother, asking him ' * to especially advise my son 
John to continue travelling for his health and love to him 
and ..." (Name here given in full by Phinuit.) At an- 
other sitting the brother was told to hold on for a while 
longer and the spirit would tell him what to do. After- 
ward Dr. Hodgson was told that the proper name had a 
special and private significance, and that the advice to 
hold on was very opportune, coming in the midst of busi- 
ness troubles. 

The advice to hold on is, however, too general to have 
much evidential value, and we are again quite in the dark 
as to whether Mrs. Piper did not know enough about the 
family to give the name. 

10. Mrs. Pitman was told that she would be ill in Paris 
with stomach trouble, and that a sandy-complexioned gen- 
tleman would take care of her. Mrs. Pitman was then ex- 
pecting to go abroad, and she was taken ill in Paris with 
stomach trouble, was attended by a sandy-haired doctor, 
and died of her illness. 

If only Phinuit had foretold the death, how much more 
striking it would have been ! Surely it is simple enough to 
guess that a traveller eating new kinds of food is likely to 
have stomach trouble, and in guessing the sandy-haired 
doctor the chances are at least even that the guess will be 
right. 

11. Mrs. M. E. P. was told that she would leave her 
home and settle in the city in a corner house. This came 

69 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

true, and might easily have been inferred from Mrs. M. 
E. P.'s incidental remarks. 

12. Dr. F. H. K. was told by his Uncle G. to give his 
love to H. and tell her that he saw the trouble with her 
eyes. Dr. F. H. K. later found that H. was having trouble 
with her eyes. 

But we do not know whether Dr. F. H. K. himself wore 
glasses, and so may have suggested trouble with eyes to 
Phinuit, or whether Mrs. Piper knew anything about this 
girl which may have suggested eye troubles. 

13. Mr. W. B. C. was told that a certain friend had a 
cold and was at home on a couch with his throat bandaged. 
He did have a cold, but was not at home with a bandaged 
throat. 

This was in February — and colds are common then. 

14. He was also told that at that instant G. M. L. was 
writing a letter at his desk at home. 

This was not positively verified and so is not evidential. 

15. Phinuit gave Mr. Thaw a nickname unknown to 
any one present for a friend of his, which his widow said 
later was the one used by his mother and sisters. 

16. Phinuit called Mrs. Thaw's dead aunt Ann Eliza. 
They knew her only as Eliza, and only later discovered that 
her first name was Anna. 

But Mrs. Piper was at the Thaws' and had various op- 
portunities to hear about their family and friends. 

17. Phinuit told Mr. Perkins that his father believed 
that he had heart trouble, though he really had not. The 
father admitted this later, but said that he had not told his 
fear even to the doctor. 

18. The Thaws were told that W. was coming to them 
soon and that his kidneys were out of order. This was not 
suspected at the time, but was discovered two months later, 
and five months afterward he died in his sleep of heart 
failure. 

19. Miss Heffern was told to put the thing she had in 

70 



TEST MESSAGES 

her lap about her neck as her mother had told her. She 
had supposed that the object, which was done up in paper, 
was a lock of hair, but it proved to be an Agnus Dei, which 
her mother had told her to wear about her neck. 

The last three incidents are more striking than the 
others, if the incidents occurred as told, but when we con- 
sider the possibilities of error in the report we cannot at- 
tach any importance to them. We do not know enough 
about the conditions. 

These complete the incidents in Hodgson's series which 
were unknown to the sitter at the time they were given, 
but later proved true. 



CHAPTER V 

TEST MESSAGES (Continued) 

The Piper case entered upon a new phase with the ap- 
pearance of the spirit father of Prof. James H. Hyslop, in 
1898. Professor Hyslop 's account of his experiences ap- 
pears in the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search, vol. xvi, 1901, and fills 649 pages. 

Hyslop entered upon this investigation, he says, as a 
sceptic, and with the intention of making the conditions of 
the seances so rigid that the most carping critic could not 
detect flaws in them. He made no attempt, however, to 
prevent Mrs. Piper from obtaining information through 
inquiries, etc., because he believed that her good faith was 
so securely established during the previous ten years of 
experimenting that no person " of any intelligence " could 
doubt it. His ingenuity was entirely directed toward mak- 
ing it impossible for the controls to get any information 
from him. 

To this end he wore a mask and did not speak at the 
first two sittings, until Mrs. Piper had given his name, after 
which he thought these precautions unnecessary. Also, no 
one knew that he was to have sittings save Dr. Hodgson 
and his secretary, Miss Edmunds, and both of them are 
sure that they did not tell any one. 

During all the sittings he never spoke to Mrs. Piper 
in her normal state but twice, and then in an assumed voice. 
He used his normal voice during the trance. In order to 
exclude muscular suggestion, he never touched Mrs. Piper, 
save on the few recorded occasions, and perhaps half a 
dozen other times when he seized the hand to straighten it 

72 



TEST MESSAGES 

on the writing pad. And during the sitting, he stood be- 
hind and to Mrs. Piper's right, where she could not have 
seen him even if her eyes had been open, or get any sug- 
gestion from his expression, etc. 

The records are complete, with true names, every word 
spoken during the sitting being recorded, except some that 
were inaudible, and such phrases as " Wait a moment, 
please, ' ' used by Hodgson when the paper had to be turned 
or a new piece substituted. The record was taken thus: 
Hodgson sat near the table where he could see the writing, 
he or Hyslop read it aloud in a low voice, and he copied 
as much of it as he could, while also taking remarks by 
himself and Hyslop and adding explanatory matter. 
After the sitting they went over the automatic writing and 
completed it, and had typewritten copies made and sent 
to the printer, whose proofs were compared with and cor- 
rected by the automatic writing. This would seem to make 
the record as complete and accurate as it well could be, 
so far as words go. 

With these precautions Hyslop is confident that he has 
excluded all possibility of any suggestion from the sitter 
which is not indicated in the record by the sitter's words, 
and that therefore the straight issue can be made as to 
where Mrs. Piper gets the information given in the mes- 
sages, without implicating the sitter as either a voluntary 
or an involuntary source of information. 

The first question then is as to whether the precautions 
really were sufficient. With regard to the assumption that 
because Mrs. Piper was never detected in fraud in the early 
days, we can assume further that she never uses any pos- 
sible sources of information, certain remarks may be made. 
Every additional successful year must make the temptation 
greater for Mrs. Piper's controls to use all means to suc- 
ceed, and as we shall see later, the Hodgson control of to- 
day evades, deceives, and blusters in order to mislead the 
sitter quite as much as Phinuit ever did. But it seems to us 
8 73 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

that further, consciously or unconsciously, it would be 
humanly impossible for the normal Mrs. Piper not to cul- 
tivate a memory for personal incidents, chance bits of in- 
formation, a love of directories, etc., and that her sub- 
conscious mind must always be on the alert to group 
together all the facts relevant to any probable sitter. In 
the twelve years of experience before Hyslop came to her, 
she could hardly have avoided gaining general impressions 
of the class of men who were her sitters, and whether she 
was very fully conscious of it or not, it is altogether prob- 
able that Hyslop had been tagged in her mind as a pos- 
sible sitter, together with others. 

Let us grant that even if she could she would not send 
agents to get information about sitters. Still it would 
scarcely be possible for her not to be instinctively inter- 
ested in any one whom she knew to be interested in Psychical 
Research. Facts thus obtained by the normal self might 
soon drop below the conscious memory, and be available 
for the controls at any time. 

In the next place, while it is true that Hyslop 's precau- 
tions are greater than those of any previous sitter, there 
are certain difficulties inherent in any sitting which he does 
not consider. He states that as the writing progressed, 
either he or Dr. Hodgson read it aloud in order to be sure 
that they understood it. Dr. Hall and I also did this, and 
when I consider how much the control obtained thus 
through our inflections I am certain that he also obtained 
much from Hodgson and Hyslop, and probably more, be- 
cause they were intensely in earnest and inclined to belief, 
and therefore would involuntarily betray more of their 
deep feeling than would we, who had no feeling. With 
regard to the amount of suggestion thus obtained, Hyslop 
gives us a sidelight apropos of the possibility of Hodgson 
himself being implicated in fraud. He says that Hodgson 
was often not present at his sittings, and that if anything, 
the writing was more relevant at those times. That is, 

74 



TEST MESSAGES 

when Hyslop, who knew numerous details, was reading, 
more details were given than when Hodgson, who knew 
only part, read. {Proceedings, vol. xvi, p. 7.) I do not 
see how any one who has sat with Mrs. Piper and knows 
her sensitiveness to sounds can question that in this way 
any sitter betrays much. 

We feel justified, therefore, in spite of Hyslop 's often- 
repeated assertions that all of his sittings were under the 
strictest conditions, and were all evidential, in concluding 
that in his sittings, as in all others, the only messages that 
need to be considered as even prima facie tests are those in 
which the content was unknown to the sitters and was later 
verified. These are as follows : 

1. Hyslop 's father (that is, his purported spirit) asks 
if he remembers the story that he used to tell him about a 
fire. Hyslop did not, but later his stepmother and sister 
said that his father was always afraid that his barn 
would burn, and on one occasion was greatly alarmed 
because he believed that another fire was his own barn 
burning. 

Note here that the real point, viz., that Hyslop, Sr., told 
his son a story about a fire is not proved ; only a presump- 
tion is created that because he thought about fires he would 
tell stories about them. 

2. In describing his last illness he said that his eyes had 
troubled him, which was true, but unknown to Hyslop. 

3. Hyslop, Sr., referred to a little brown-handled knife 
that he said he carried in his vest and coat pocket. Hyslop 
did not know of any such, but his stepmother and sister 
remembered it, but said that he carried it in his " pants 
pocket." 

4. He said that strychnine was one of the medicines he 
took in his last illness. Hyslop did not remember this, but 
later found an old letter from his father in which he said 
that he was taking strychnine and arsenic. 

These three incidents are surely not very evidential. 

75 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

The medicines referred to are frequently given and might 
be guessed by any one, while any elderly person is likely 
to have trouble with his eyes when ill. The brown-handled 
knife, too, is so common a sort of possession that it would 
be a relatively safe guess. 

5. The father asked if his son remembered their talks 
about Swedenborg. He did, but only vaguely. But both 
father and son were much interested in religious matters 
and especially in immortality, and Swedenborg would be 
sure to come up at some time in conversation between two 
such persons. We may also think it probable that Mrs. 
Piper would have some knowledge of all the prominent peo- 
ple who had powers akin to her own. 

6. The father asked, " And do you remember Thorn. . . 
Tom ... I mean the horse. ' ' Hyslop was completely sur- 
prised by this reference to a favorite horse of his father. 

7. "Do you remember Peter, . . who was . . or be- 
longed to Nanie ? ' ' Hyslop saw no meaning in this at the 
time, but later found that the cousin who, he supposed, 
asked this question had had a dog named Peter when he 
was between two and four years old, but it seems to have 
had no connection with Nanie. 

Here there are two doubts: first, that it really was the 
cousin who was speaking, and second, that the dog was re- 
ferred to. There is nothing in the message to indicate that 
it was a dog, and as it is connected with Nanie, who had 
nothing to do with the dog, the presumption might be just 
the opposite from what Hyslop makes it. 

8. The father said that he used to read the paper in his 
chair, and the stepmother confirmed this remark. 

Most elderly men at home read the paper in " their " 
chairs. This is really too trivial and commonplace to be 
worth remark. 

9. The father asked if his son remembered the visit that 
he had paid to him just before his death. Hyslop did not, 
but later found that he had totally forgotten a visit his 

76 



TEST MESSAGES 

father had paid him several years before his death, and so 
he counts this remark as correct. 

This is a favourable sample of the way in which Hyslop 
secures his large number of correct items. Any father 
would be presumed to pay visits to his children from time 
to time, and so the only evidential part of the item is the 
statement that a particular visit came just before his death, 
but this is totally wrong. 

10. A new spirit suddenly appeared and, without an- 
nouncing who he was, asked, " Where is the book of 
poems? " Hyslop inferred that this was a certain cousin, 
and upon inquiry found that in his last illness he had had 
a book read to him in which there was a poem at the end 
of each chapter. 

Here, of course, there are one doubt and one mistake. 
The doubt is as to whether the spirit really was this cousin. 
The mistake is in calling a book of prose with occasional 
poems in it a book of poetry. 

11. James McLellan said that his brother John would 
be there soon, the context indicating plainly that James 
meant that his brother would soon die and join him. It 
turned out, however, that John had already died, nearly a 
year before, and of course the control proceeds to explain 
his ambiguous phrases and Hyslop accepts the explanation. 

12. The same control said that the same John had had a 
sunstroke from which he had never fully recovered. After 
much labour, Hyslop found that once he had been a little 
overcome from the heat but had never suffered permanently 
from it, and yet he counts this statement as correct. 

13. The father said that he had had a box of minerals 
when he was a boy. Hyslop found that he had had a box 
of Indian arrow heads and relics, and so counts this as cor- 
rect. But Indian arrow heads are not minerals, and min- 
erals are something practically every child makes a collec- 
tion of at some time, so that the guess was an easy one. 

14. The father spoke of visits to Hyslop 's brother which 

77 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Hyslop did not remember. But do not most fathers visit 
their children ? Any one could make such a reference with- 
out knowing anything whatever about a family. 

15. The father said that they had put an organ into the 
United Presbyterian Church at his former home, and Hys- 
lop found that this really had been done a few months 
before. 

But the control left the time when this had been done 
indefinite, so that if it had happened at any time in the 
years after the father's death it might have been counted 
as correct. Further, if the control knew, as he probably 
did, the change of sentiment in recent years in the stricter 
denominations with regard to using musical instruments 
in churches, he would be entirely safe in making such a 
guess. 

16-19. In the five sittings which Hodgson held for Hys- 
lop, Hyslop, Sr., said that he used to pore over the pages 
of his books and write out little extracts in his diary. He 
did make extracts, but wrote them on slips of paper — and 
this was the characteristic item. 

Again, he said that one tune was running through his 
mind, " Nearer, My God, to Thee," and his wife said he 
had a particular aversion to this hymn. It looks here as if 
the control in guessing a common favourite struck it right 
by contraries. 

Again, he said he kept his spectacle case on his desk, 
and near it a paper cutter, a writing pad, a number of 
' l rests, ' ' and a square and a round bottle. He did not keep 
his spectacle case nor paper cutter in his desk, but (strange 
to say !) did have two ink bottles, a square and a round one. 
The ' ' rests ' ' Hyslop identifies with the pigeon holes of the 
desk, though it is hard to see why. Out of all these items 
the two of the bottles alone are correct, but the whole state- 
ment is counted correct. 

In another sitting he refers to the roughness of the 
roads. 

78 



TEST MESSAGES 

In these sittings for Hyslop there is really not one in- 
cident which might not have been guessed, or which may 
not have been known to Hodgson in a general way. Any one 
with a desk is likely to have writing pads and bottles in it, 
and any one who reads is likely to make extracts from his 
books. Hodgson knew that Hyslop, Sr., had lived in a 
country district, and might easily have given that impres- 
sion to the medium, who would doubtless infer rough roads 
from it, especially since it was what she would call " out 
West," in Ohio. 

But the most interesting part of these five sittings is to 
be found in the illustrations of the way in which Hyslop 
interprets the remarks of the controls. Some of these are 
worth quoting verbatim as illustrative of the way in which 
he gets his large percentage of correct facts. 

In one sitting, Hyslop, Sr., says to Hodgson: " I am 
thinking of the time some years ago when I went into the 
mountains for a change with him, and the trip we had to 
the lake after we left the camp." Hyslop 's contemporary 
note on this is: " Father never went into the mountains 
with me nor to the lake. Also, the allusion to his doing this 
after leaving the camp has no meaning whatever. ... It 
would require a great deal of twisting and forced interpre- 
tation to discover any truth in the statements." 

Six months later, he whites : ' ' That the reader may see 
how nearly the passage is to being absolutely correct, I may 
be allowed to reconstruct it somewhat with the imaginary 
confusion that ends in ' mountains ' and ' camp.' If we 
assume anything like the trouble that was manifest in the 
guitar incident, the following is conceivable: 

" [Hyslop, Sr., speaks:] ' I am thinking of the time 
some years ago when I went into (Father says Illinois. 
Rector does not understand this and asks if he means hilly. 
Father says, ' no, prairies.' Rector does not understand. 
Father says l no mountains.' Rector understands this as 
'No! Mountains,' and continues,) the mountains for a 

79 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

change with him and the trip we had to the lake, after we 
left (Father says Champaign. Rector understands camp, 
and continues) the camp. ' The name of the town is usually 
pronounced shampane, and according to my stepmother 
my father so pronounced it when living, though my own 
recollection is that he often pronounced it Campane. But, 
of course, we do not know the various tendencies to error 
which occur in the transmission of such messages." Of 
course not! 

Again, Hyslop, Sr., asks, " Do you remember a little 
black skull cap I used to wear and what has become of it ? " 
On inquiry, Hyslop 's stepmother wrote emphatically that 
he never wore a skull cap in the daytime, and never but 
once at night, though he always complained of his head 
being cold. Hyslop says of this : ' ' I took this as sufficient 
to condemn the reference, but it has occurred to me since 
this frequent reference to the cap that the wish in life to 
have some covering for his head, which was very bald, and 
which suffered from the cold, might here crop up as an 
automatism." ! ! 

Again, Hyslop, Sr., was trying to recall the medicines 
which he used in his last illness, and asked if malt was one 
of them, or maltine. Hyslop remarks: " This allusion to 
maltine here is very singular. . . The singular fact is 
that I had sent the spectacle case and contents to Dr. H. 
in an old maltine box, and this box was on the floor, out of 
which the spectacle case was taken a moment afterward." 
In a later note he adds that he knew that Mrs. Piper had 

not seen the box in her normal condition ' ' Hence 

I wrote to my brother, stepmother, and sister to know 
whether father had ever taken any maltine or contemplated 
taking it." The stepmother and sister doubted it, and the 
brother says that he advised it, but the father did not do it. 
Then Hyslop concludes: " The specific place which my 
brother's advice would have in his (the father's) mind 
would naturally occur to him or any one else trying to think 

80 



TEST MESSAGES 

over the efforts to stay the disease with which he was suf- 
fering, though we must wonder why he did not name a 
more familiar medicine which I had in mind when I put 
my question. " 

The sceptic might suggest that the more familiar medi- 
cine was not named on a handy box which the medium 
probably caught a glimpse of. 

Again, this is the way in which the control gave the 
name of Hyslop ? s sister Henrietta : 

The hand first made various attempts, writing A Nabbse, 
Abbie, Addie, saying it was his sister, until Hyslop 
said : * 

" (Oh, well, I know. I know who you mean now. Yes. 
I know who you mean now. But it is not spelled quite 
right.) 

H Abbie. 

(The letter H is right.) 

Yes, but let me hear it and I will get it. G. P. Hattie. 
(That is very nearly right.) 
Harriet. 

(Pretty nearly. Try it one letter at a time.) 
HETTIE. G. P. 

(That is right. Yes. That is right and fine.) " 
Hyslop adds in a note: " The nickname Hettie is cor- 
rect for her, though we never called her that, at least I 
never did so, and I know some of the others and her friends 
called her Etta. This seems to have been written partly 
at the end, ' Ett. . ' But it was near enough for me to 
recognise it clearly for Henrietta, and I did not press for 
this last, which was probably not the natural form of using 
her name." 

So the spirit father gave his daughter a nickname never 

i In quoting from any sitting, everything between the double 
quotations " " is taken exactly from the report. The sitter's remarks 
are between parentheses ( ) ; the control's have no marks; remarks 
between brackets [ ] are the sitter's comments on the sitting. 

81 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

used by any one, which he evidently supposed to be an 
abbreviation of Harriet instead of her real name, Henrietta, 
and yet it is accepted by Hyslop as correct. 

In one of the Hodgson sittings for Hyslop, Hyslop sent 
this question for his father: " Do you remember Samuel 
Cooper, and can you say anything about him? " 

The father answered, " He refers to the old friend of 
mine in the West, ' ' and said that they had talked on philo- 
sophical topics. 

Hyslop at first thought this all nonsense, but later 
learned that his father did know a Joseph Cooper with 
whom he had had many religious discussions. Unfortu- 
nately, Joseph lived in Allegheny, east of their home, but 
he founded a Cooper School far west of their home, and 
perhaps this confused the spirit Hyslop ! 

These comprise all the incidents of importance unknown 
to the sitter and later verified. As the reader can see for 
himself, many of them are partly or wholly wrong, or are 
so commonplace that any one could have guessed them. 

In spite of Professor Hyslop 's own peculiar facility in 
guessing the meaning of the controls, it seems to be pecul- 
iarly aggravating to him to allow others the same priv- 
ileges of interpreting, and especially so to have them 
assume that the controls are fishing and guessing. One 
hesitates to bring down his vials of wrath upon one 's head, 
but the more one goes over all the sittings, and especially 
his own, the more this theory is forced upon one, especially 
when one considers that these 110 " test messages " were 
scattered over twelve years of sittings, making an average 
of only ten a year. 

Looking at the various reports with this time perspec- 
tive, Count Petrovo-Solovovo 's remark seems amply justi- 
fied that the importance of Mrs. Piper's trance utterances 
and writings is enormously exaggerated by her ardent 
followers. 

One of the most interesting series of sittings, perhaps 

82 



TEST MESSAGES 

the most interesting from some standpoints, is Professor 
Newbold's. Seven sittings were held for him by Hodgson, 
and he himself was present at twenty -six. Of those seven, 
five occurred before he saw Mrs. Piper at all. He sent 
various articles to Hodgson to give to Phinuit, who talked 
volubly about them through five sittings, and gave practi- 
cally nothing correct. Hodgson notes here that " none of 
these articles fulfilled the condition of having been worn 
much or exclusively by one person." 

In the twenty-six sittings at which Newbold was pres- 
ent, there is not one incident unknown to him and later 
verified, and most of the sittings, as he says very frankly, 
are unintelligible nonsense. He records more carefully than 
Hodgson the various tentative efforts of the medium in get- 
ting names, etc., and on this account his records are invalu- 
able as a check on the others. It should be noted, too, that 
at his first meeting with Mrs. Piper she could not go into 
a trance at all, and at the first sitting the results were 
very unsatisfactory, even more so than later. 

One of the best illustrations of fishing is in the pur- 
ported translation of Greek by George Pelham, who was a 
good linguist while on this side. At a previous seance Pel- 
ham had given incorrectly the common Latin phrase, Fama 
semper vivat, as Fama tempus vivat, and was unable to 
see how he was incorrect, though Newbold called his atten- 
tion to it. Newbold then tried to get the Latin motto of 
the Tavern Club, and the hand wrote a lot of illegible 
scrawls, among which he thought he detected certain words. 
He then asked whether they were Due vir, and the hand 
said that they were, and also that the translation " Lead 
the way," was the correct one. 

Then Newbold suggested that they should try some 
Greek, and the hand assented. Accordingly, he spoke the 
first phrase of the Lord 's Prayer in Greek : Harrjp rjfjiwv 6 
iv Tot<? ovpavois, or, in English characters, ' ' pater hemon ho 
en tois ouranois." Literally translated this is, " father of 

83 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

ns who in the Heavens. ' ' Here follows Newbold 's account 
of the translation. 

After speakirg the phrase he asked: 

" (Did you catch it?) 

' ' No, not exactly, slowly. Pater . . I say . . Pae . . Pater . . 
pater, .good hemon. . [illegible.] he. .hemon. .urano is.. 
and translation ... Good ... love [? illegible.] Love [?] 
Love [ ?] . .father is in. . that is right. . " 

Notice here how soon the fishing process has begun. 
The control gets no encouragement on the indistinct word 
supposed to be love and so drops that. The Greek pater 
sounds exactly like the Latin pater, and every one knows 
the meaning of that word whether he has ever studied 
Latin or not. En would naturally be guessed as in, and 
so we have two words of the " translation " already. 

" (All right, but go ahead.) 

1 ' I cannot quite catch that B . . yes . . Patience . . well, 
you have it, B . . 

" [Throughout both Mr. 0. and I frequently repeated 
the words and spelled them both in Greek and English.] 

And who can doubt that thus they also gave many un- 
suspected clews to the control ? 

" Father is in. .tois ou ou nois our . .B. . Patience my 
boy. . Father is in Heavens. 

" (One word is left out, George.) 

" Spell it slowly. 

" (Greek or English?) 

" Greek, of course. 

" [We do so. Hemon.] 

1 ' Father is in the Heaven . . I not catch . . slowly now, 
speak those letters separately, my boy. . ae. . mon. 

" (Rough breathing now, hemon.) 

' ' Heaven . . Yes . . too bad, old chap . . 

" [I read bad as hard.] 

" Bad, I say. I'll catch it." 

Note here the various tentatives. Ou ou nois is con- 

84 



TEST MESSAGES 

nected with our, but as no indications are given of its cor- 
rectness, it is dropped for a time. Hemon was guessed at 
as Heaven, and when the control was told that the one 
untranslated word was hemon he was confused, repeated 
his own translation, said he could not catch it, and then 
went on, pointing to 0. 

" Now you say it. Let me see if it will reach me any 
better. 

" [0. says it. Hand gesticulates and twists so as to 
get 0. 's mouth close to the outer side of the hand, just be- 
low the root of the little finger.] 

" My ear. 

" [I explain that he means that his spirit ear is located 
there.] 

" Certainly, my ear. . . .EMO. . that is what bothers 
me. . Father is. . was. . now. . no. . Father. . our. . 

" [Quickly and with excitement] OUR OU [Then 
slowly and reverently, in capital letters] OUR FATHER 
IS IN HEAVEN. 

" (Good.) 

" [We all shake hands over it.] 

" (We generally put it, Our father who art in Heaven.) 

" [Excitement in the hand.] Yes, I remember that, 
too." 

Here again notice the attempts beginning with EMO, 
and the pauses in which, doubtless, the control was waiting 
indications that he was right. When he gave " our " 
again, the two sitters gave some involuntarily different re- 
action from what they had given to the other words. 
" Our " was then repeated in capitals, and the favourable 
signs being given again the control had all that he needed 
and gave the sentence, but without even then connecting it 
with the Lord's Prayer, as is evident by the excitement 
shown when Newbold gave the usual rendering. And yet, 
if there had really been any translating at all, instead of 
guessing, this connotation could hardly have been avoided, 

85 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

because the phrase is one of the earliest learned and best 
known in Greek. 

This result seemed so surprising, in view of the fact 
that Mrs. Piper knew no Greek, that Newbold tried another 
Greek sentence, ""Ow eari davaros. — There is no death, ' ' 
choosing very simple Greek words on the thought upper- 
most in all their minds. 

These were given four days after the last recounted 
effort. Pelham asked them to call in Moses, who was a 
notable Greek scholar while alive, and the result was con- 
fusion worse confounded. Moses apparently, in the first 
phrase, ' ' Ouk esti thanatos, ' ' took the Ouk to mean light, 
apparently from the Latin Lux, and could get no further. 
On the two following days renewed attempts were equally 
unsuccessful, but four days later, when Hodgson alone was 
present, while G. P. was talking about something else, the 
hand suddenly asked, " Who said there was no death? ,; 

" [Hand moves forward as though ' speiring ' into the 
vacant space.] Moses. 

" (Ask Moses what he means by that?) 

" Well, you interrupt me. Well, I must say, old chap. 

" (I did not mean to interrupt you.) 

" No not you H. . Moses. . Ouk esti thanatos. Moses. 

" (That's first rate. Is this Mr. Moses translating?) 

" Ouk esti thanatos. There's no death. Eepeat it to 
me in Greek, Hodgson, for him. 

" [Hodgson repeats, says it is correct, and suggests get- 
ting the rest of the passage translated.] 

" Come H. Come here a moment. Hurry up H. 

" [Hodgson repeats the rest of the passage.] 

" Again. . Good oh good may God preserve you always 
H., and keep you alive on earth until you have accom- 
plished a thorough work. I'll help you in every way 
possible. 

" (Shall I repeat the Greek again?) 

"Yes, something new.. Yes he's listening., too fast 

86 



TEST MESSAGES 

H. . wait. . ready he has it very nearly, .not the last H. . 
no before . . . yes . . not quite . . got it. 

" [K. H. had been repeating the first five words only 
several times.] 

" I'll go now and translate it and return soon." 

And that was the last heard of it. 

In these trials note that there was no success at all for 
three sittings, and four days elapsed between the third and 
the fourth. This could be readily understood if Mrs. Piper 
could be supposed to be fraudulent — which, of course, is 
not the case — for being ignorant of Greek she could not 
look up the words in a dictionary until she had learned 
the forms of the Greek letters, which would take some time, 
and even when she was able to remember some, or happened 
across some one with some knowledge of Greek, she got only 
three — ouk esti thanatos. 

Another interesting feature of the Newbold sittings is 
that Imperator first makes his appearance here, and we 
get a little light on the manner of development of a control. 
At the sitting of June 19, 1895, the Pelham control was 
talking to Newbold about the future life, and Newbold 
asked if he knew of Stainton Moses. 

1 ' No, not very much. Why 1 

" (Did you ever know of him or know what he did?) 

" I only have an idea from having met him here. 

" (Can you tell me what he said?) 

" No, only that he was W. Stainton Moses. I found 
him for E and Hodgson. 

" (Did you tell Hodgson this?) 

" I do not think so. 

" (Did he say anything about his mediumship?) 

" No. 

il (His writings claimed that the soul carried with it all 
its passions and appetites, and was very slowly purified of 
them.) 

** It is all untrue. 

87 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

11 (And that the souls of the bad hover over the earth, 
goading sinners on to their own destruction.) " 

So far all the information has been given by Newbold. 
The next day he asked for Moses, but he did not appear 
then. On the next day he asked again, but Pelham said 
he could not find him and that the doctor, too, was after 
him. In these days Newbold let fall that Moses had been 
dead three years. On the next day Phinuit described a 
spirit corresponding to Newbold 's idea of Moses, and 
Moses himself appeared presently, Phinuit acting as inter- 
mediary. After some introductory instructions by Phinuit, 
Newbold said: 

" (Tell him I have read with interest his book, Spirit 
Teachings, but find in it statements apparently incon- 
sistent with what you say, and I would like to know his 
explanation of the fact.) 

" [Moses:] Believe you in me and my teachings? " 

Newbold speaks again about the inconsistencies, and 
Moses finally asks what they are, and on being told what 
his own book says, says that he was mistaken and has 
learned differently since death. He had committed him- 
self to the wrong view in the first appearance. He goes 
on to make other corrections in his book. 

Newbold then says that the names of his guides have 
never been made public, and if he would give him their 
names it would be an excellent test of his identity. He 
gives him a new pencil, and the hand twists and turns it 
for some minutes as if in doubt. Finally Newbold asks : 

" (Who was Rector?) 

" Dr. (name given here.) " 

After thanks and other conversation Newbold asks who 
Imperator was, and another name was written. Then, after 
desultory talk about his book and the spirit world, Moses 
said he thought himself fortunate to have been brought 
here by Speer. Newbold asks, " Charlton C. Speer? " and 
with great excitement Moses recognises his old friend and 

88 



TEST MESSAGES 

co-worker. He thought that he remembered Myers, but did 
not recall Hodgson at first. 

Two days later, when Hodgson and Newbold were pres- 
ent, Mrs. Piper went into the trance easily instead of with 
great difficulty as usual, and it was evident that a new 
control had come, who declared himself to be Moses. 

Moses at this time gave the name of Wallace as a friend, 
and when Hodgson asked if it was Alfred R. Wallace, he 
assented. 

Hodgson asked him to tell who Imperator was, as a test, 
since no one living knew except Myers. Moses talked 
around it and tried to evade the test, but finally wrote a 
name which, as already stated, was incorrect. 

We have, finally, to consider the few sittings with Mrs. 
Piper published since Dr. Hodgson's death. These are re- 
ported by Hyslop and James, and are communications pur- 
porting to come from Dr. Hodgson. Hyslop says that if 
it is Dr. Hodgson who is communicating, he has an almost 
impossible task before him in proving his identity through 
Mrs. Piper. He worked with Mrs. Piper for eighteen 
years, and no one can say how much she and her controls 
have learned about him in that time. Hyslop adds, " I 
should admit frankly that if I were dealing with ordinary 
professional mediums the facts which I expect to narrate 
would have no evidential or scientific value," because they 
might be referred to knowledge possessed by the medium 
in her normal state. But Hyslop is perfectly convinced 
that the Piper controls do not know what Mrs. Piper knows, 
as well as vice versa. 

Bearing this in mind, let us further note that the con- 
trol calling itself Hodgson says that it has great difficulty 
in speaking through any medium save Mrs. Piper. 

Here is one of the incidents which Hyslop quotes: Dr. 

Hodgson and Hyslop had experimented with a certain girl 

medium, and later Hodgson had mentioned the experiment 

to Mrs. Piper's controls. After Hodgson's death a friend 

9 89 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

sitting with Mrs. Piper asked him if he would not com- 
municate through some other medium, and he replied, ' • No, 
I will not, except through the young light. She is all 
right, ' ' and later on said that Hyslop would understand to 
whom he referred. About this same time this young 
1 ' light "in a sitting with her parents said that her control 
1 ' had seen Dr. Hodgson, ' ' of whose death she did not then 
know. Hyslop says of this incident: " At least Mrs. 
Piper's subliminal can be supposed to have been aware of 
the facts sufficiently to deprive the incident of the evi- 
dential value which we would like it to have. But the most 
striking incident is the last one quoted." But what a 
forced interpretation is put on this. The control of the 
young " light " did not say that he had seen Hodgson in 
the spirit world, but only that he had seen him, and 
throughout Mrs. Piper 's sittings the controls are always see- 
ing people who are living, doing this, that, and the other 
thing. As Hyslop gives the incident, there is nothing at 
all that makes it necessary to assume that the medium or 
her control was thinking of Hodgson as dead. 

Another incident to which Hyslop attaches " great im- 
portance ' ' is this : In a seance Hodgson suddenly breaks 
out, " Remember that I told Myers we would talk nigger 
talk." Hyslop dissented to this, and Hodgson corrected 
it, saying, " Ah, yes, James. I remember it was Will 
James." Professor James did not remember any such re- 
mark, either then or later on, until in a general conversa- 
tion on Spiritism with a guest he remarked that he had 
several times told Dr. Hodgson that " if he would only 
use a little tact (with the controls) he could convert their 
deific verbiage into nigger minstrel talk. ' ' 

One other incident will show how definite Hodgson is 
in his remarks about himself. In the course of a seance 
Hodgson began : 

" I shall never forget our experiments with a so-called 
light when you took a bottle of red liquid. 

90 



TEST MESSAGES 

" (Very good. You know what a noise that man has 
made.) 

11 I do. I know all about it. 

" (I have had some controversy with a friend of 
his.) 

" Recently? 

" (Yes, recently. Now, can you answer a question? 
Tell me who it was or all you can recall about it.) 

" Yes, which? I remember our meeting there. I can 
remember the liquid experiment, which was capital. I also 
recall an experiment when you tied the handkerchief. 

" (I do not recall it at this moment.) 

" What's the matter with you? 

" (I have tied handkerchiefs so often.) 

' ' Remember the voice experiment ? 

" (Yes, I remember that well. That was when the liquid 
was used.) 

' i I am referring to it now. I know it perfectly well, 
but no one else does. 

" (Yes, that's right.) 

' ' I remember how she tried to fool us. 

" (Yes, it was my first trial at that.) " 

Hyslop remarks that the liquid was not red but purple, 
and that no handkerchief was used, but Dr. Hodgson 
talked about handkerchiefs on the way home, ' ' and as any 
allusion to a handkerchief in this connection is pertinent, 
one must imagine that the incident which I have mentioned 
was actually intended. ' ' ! ! 

This is typical of the Hyslop conversations with Hodg- 
son, and the reader can judge from it how far Hodgson 
has thereby proven his personal identity. Even if the me- 
dium had not known Hodgson personally, but had only 
known about him, little is said that she might not have 
said from her own knowledge. 

In Proceedings, vol. xx, Professor James contributes 
121 pages to a study of the Piper sittings at which Hodg- 

91 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

son 's spirit purports to be present, but we will not consider 
these in further detail, since he himself says very frankly 
that the possibilities of leakage can never be entirely elim- 
inated, so that there could not well be a more difficult task 
set for any one to prove his identity than to Hodgson, if 
he really is speaking. The general public will always be- 
lieve it possible that either Mrs. Piper or the secondary per- 
sonality obtained the information given from the living 
Hodgson or some of his friends; and will be strengthened 
in its position, I might add, by the fact that at Mrs. Piper 's 
last visit to England, in 1906, when friends of Hodgson 
unknown to Mrs. Piper were given sittings, the Hodgson 
control did not recognise them. In proportion, that is, as 
the conditions eliminated the possibilities of leakage, the 
supposed Hodgson control failed to make good. Neverthe- 
less, Professor James says that sometimes the control makes 
the strong impression upon him of being Hodgson, and 
that some of the messages are such as it would be very 
improbable for either the waking or entranced Mrs. Piper 
to know. He says, " I myself feel as if an external will 
to communicate were probably there. . . . But if asked 
whether the will to communicate be Hodgson's or be some 
mere spirit counterfeit of Hodgson, I remain uncertain and 
await more facts, facts which may not point clearly to a 
conclusion for fifty or a hundred years." And in this 
' ' almost persuaded ' ' state we are forced to leave Professor 
James. 

To sum up the published sittings then, we have the 
following results : Approximately 110 facts in twenty years 
have been given, which the sitter did not know and which 
were true. But many of these facts, as we have seen, are 
easily explicable as inferences or guesses, or are so vague 
as to have little or no value, while the few striking coinci- 
dences are so few that it does not seem to be stretching tol- 
erance if we frankly leave them unexplained, or refer them 
to incidents or references in the sittings which were not 

92 






TEST MESSAGES 

considered important enough to record. The so-called 
translation of unknown tongues, of which the public press 
has given such exaggerated reports, turns out to be a spe- 
cialised form of fishing, as we shall see in even more detail 
a little later in translating the famous Latin message. 



CHAPTER VI 
OPINIONS OF SITTERS 

The reduction of the Piper test messages to so few and 
so unimportant, seems, however, too easy of accomplishment 
to be reliable, in the face of all the confidence that they 
have inspired in well-known people, who have been con- 
verted to a belief in spirit communication through them. 
The question that inevitably arises is why these notable 
people were convinced by such banalities, easy guesses, fish- 
ing, and rubbish 1 

In order to answer this question completely we ought to 
make a study on the psychology of Mrs. Piper 's sitters, akin 
to Miss Johnson 's in studying Home 's manifestations. But 
this is obviously impossible at present, and so we must 
content ourselves with an array of opinions from the most 
notable of them. 

First as to the favourable opinions: 

Sir Oliver Lodge was convinced during Mrs. Piper's 
first visit to England that he obtained spirit communica- 
tions, and F. W. H. Myers was also convinced. Dr. Hodg- 
son was, of course, a believer, and Dr. Hyslop was con- 
vinced by his sittings. These are far and away the best- 
known persons who have committed themselves unreserv- 
edly to belief in Mrs. Piper, and have, in a sense, staked 
their scientific reputations on the belief that she does bring 
into connection this world and the next. 

In addition to them there are many other believers, 
such as Mrs. J. T. Clarke, Mr. and Mrs. A. Blair Thaw, 
Mr. and Mrs. Howard (the friends of George Pelham), Mr. 
J. Rogers Rich, and various people who are indicated only 

94 



OPINIONS OF SITTERS 

by letters, one of whom had forty-five sittings. Some of 
these sitters come to Mrs. Piper regularly for advice and 
consolation, and have done so for years. 

The opinions of some sitters are not given, and in a 
number of cases their judgment seems to be in suspense. 
Miss Alice Johnson, who has for many years been the sec- 
retary of the Society, is one of these, though one is led to in- 
fer — perhaps incorrectly — that she is not greatly impressed 
by Mrs. Piper, though probably she is a Spiritist. Dr. and 
Mrs. Sidgwick, after being present at nine sittings for them- 
selves and five for others, stated their conclusions thus: 
" While our own experience, taken by itself, would not es- 
tablish Dr. Phinuit's claim to supernormally acquired 
knowledge, it seems to us to support to some extent that 
claim, which from the reports of others we believe to be 
justified." I am also in doubt as to the impression left 
upon Mrs. Sidgwick by her work with Myers's spirit in the 
cross-reference tests. One would infer from her attitude 
during the sitting that she doubted Myers's claims, but 
other remarks imply belief in spirit communication. I have 
not found any definite statement of Mrs. Verrall 's attitude, 
but conclude that she believes in Mrs. Piper from her atti- 
tude toward her own automatic writing and the cross-refer- 
ence tests. 

Miss Goodrich Freer at first was favourably impressed, 
but later altered her opinion. 

Then, too, we have those sitters of intermediate opinions. 
Prof. J. E. Carpenter, of Oxford, for instance, writes, 
after one sitting : " I saw enough to convince me that Mrs. 
Piper possesses some very extraordinary powers, but I have 
no theory at all as to their nature or mode of exercise. ' ' 

Charles Eliot Norton, after one sitting, believed that 
there was some imperfect thought-transference, and no evi- 
dence of acquaintance with facts known only to him, but 
nevertheless enough of interest to make him sorry he could 
not get more. 

95 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Minot J. Savage, after various sittings, wrote, " Nearly- 
all (the things told him) are inexplicable on any theory 
that does not go at least as far as telepathy, ' ' and also be- 
lieved in spirit communication. 

Professor James, though he has said that his experi- 
ences with Mrs. Piper have overturned the old world of 
science for him, is not yet willing to go on record as be- 
lieving in communications from the dead, but (in the 
American Magazine for September, 1909) offers an in- 
genious hypothesis of half-developed, inchoate spirit per- 
sonalities struggling for expression that recalls the most 
flourishing days of oriental and mediaeval beliefs in dae- 
mons, genii, etc. 

Dr. Walter Leaf also tends in this direction. At first 
he inclined to think Phinuit a mere secondary personality, 
and describes some of his favourite tricks and evasions, but 
in 1903 he reached the conclusion that the evidence in the 
Piper case proved that ' ' memories of the dead survive and 
are under special conditions accessible to us " through the 
secondary personalities of Mrs. Piper, but he is not sure 
that these memories are coherent enough to themselves de- 
serve the name of personalities. 

Even Mr. Carrington, who is now a believer in the 
grossest physical phenomena, says (Proceedings of the So- 
ciety for Psychical 'Research, vol. xvii, p. 337) : " The 
whole case is one contirr ■ . 3 series of glorious uncertain- 
ties; of doubts, suspicions, semi-convictions, more doubts 
and again uncertainties, leaving us dissatisfied with our- 
selves and wondering whether, after all, there is such a 
thing as Spiritism or no. ' ' His predominant opinion at this 
time was that the controls were really secondary personal- 
ities, but ere now he has been convinced of their genuine- 
ness as spirits. 

Of especial interest is the opinion of Professor Newbold, 
who was present at twenty-six sittings, and for whom 
Hodgson held seven others. He says : ' ' With regard to the 

96 



OPINIONS OF SITTERS 

origin of the information given I have no theory to offer. 
I can frame none to which I cannot myself allege un- 
answerable objections." He believes that Mrs. Piper in the 
normal state is honest, but thinks that the controls obtain 
much information from the sitter, and also emphasises the 
manifold errors which may creep in because the notes are 
necessarily so incomplete and have to be in part recon- 
structed from memory. 

Prof. N. S. Shaler, after one sitting, felt confident that 
the statements made to his wife were such as to " entirely 
exclude the hypothesis that they were the results of con- 
jectures directed by the answers made by my wife. I took 
no part in the questioning, but observed very closely all 
that was done. I have no firm mind about the matter. I 
am curiously and yet absolutely uninterested in it, for the 
reason that I don't see how I can exclude the hypothesis 
of fraud, and until that can be excluded, no advance can 
be made." 

Coming now to the unfavourable opinions, there have 
been, of course, many sitters who had but one or two sit- 
tings, and obtained either nothing or else unintelligible 
nonsense or misstatements. Thomas Barkworth, for in- 
stance, was convinced that Mrs. Piper's success with him 
was due to her hold of his hand, and was surprised that 
she did not do better. G. H. Darwin was wholly uncon- 
vinced of any supernatural powers, and Prof. A. Macal- 
ister thought her a very poor impostor. Dr. S. Weir 
Mitchell attended one sitting with Professor James, and 
said that if he had not heard so much about it from Dr. 
James he would have thought it all a fraud and a very 
stupid one, too. Prof. J. Mark Baldwin, after one sitting, 
was left much as before, in a condition of " willing ap- 
proach to any evidence on either side," but disappointed 
that he got nothing more positive. Prof. J. Trowbridge, 
after one sitting, thought her in an abnormal condition, 
and " was struck by a sort of insane cunning in the grop- 

97 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

ing of the woman after something intangible." Professor 
Bowditch believed that Mrs. Piper had worked up her in- 
formation and applied it to him by mistake instead of to 
his uncle. 

Mrs. Howard Okie wrote after two sittings : ' ' My first 
sitting with Mrs. Piper was not at all satisfactory to me. 
There seemed to me to be a great deal of hedging and 
guessing. As we left the house we met friends, two of 
whom had known me since I was a young girl. Owing to 
this occurrence I could not help feeling a bit suspicious on 
my next visit when the medium was able to give the full 
names of many of my relatives with perfect accuracy and 
confidence ; but nothing was given to me which those friends 
did not know." 

Prof. J. M. Pierce, after two sittings, wrote : "I re- 
ceived none that tends to strengthen the theory of a com- 
munication from the departed." " Phinuit seems to me to 
be constantly groping after indications from me to correct 
and direct his intelligence, and in some cases he seemed to 
me to be so directed. Whatever the explanation of the 
phenomena, I believe this process to go on — a struggle for 
knowledge to whose issue the sitter contributes." " I am 
surprised to see how little is true. Nearly every approach 
to truth is at once vitiated by erroneous additions or devel- 
opments. ' ' 

Professor Richet believes that all may be explained as 
a case of secondary personality, as does Andrew Lang, and 
Flournoy says that outsiders can only wait patiently until 
the variations of opinion within the Society for Psychical 
Research are settled. 

Count Petrovo-Solovovo (himself a prominent Spiritist), 
in his appendix to a Russian translation of Podmore's 
11 Modern Spiritualism," concludes on the Piper case that 
some of the data " must be referred to a supernormal 
power, but that these are drowned in an ocean of insig- 
nificant and often silly rubbish; and that the importance 

98 



OPINIONS OF SITTERS 

of her trance utterances and writings is enormously exag- 
gerated by her ardent followers." He considers Hyslop 's 
report of little value because his colossal industry is 
coupled with an equally colossal simplicity and unconscious 
preconception. Some of the devices, he says, by which 
Hyslop interprets communications so as to make them 
veridical, are beyond criticism. " One can only hold up 
one 's hands in amazement. ' ' 

And, finally, we have Podmore, who has been a member 
of the Society for Psychical Research from its beginning, 
and who has been consistently sceptical with regard to 
spiritualistic phenomena of all kinds. He inclines to in- 
terpret some of the Piper phenomena as due to telepathy 
— which he accepts — but is very sure that there is nothing 
to demonstrate spirit communication. "When Hyslop pub- 
lished his enormous report, Podmore subjected it to a scath- 
ing criticism, and there have been various interchanges of 
civilities between the two, but throughout Podmore has re- 
mained unconvinced. 

Most recent of all in his investigations is Dr. G. Stanley 
Hall, who was present at six sittings, and was convinced 
that Mrs. Piper is simply a case of secondary personality. 
His sittings will be discussed in detail later. 

It would seem from the above reports that of people 
with scientific training, more are unconvinced by Mrs. 
Piper's claims or are hostile to them than are believers. 
Contrary to the general opinion, the sittings are not so 
striking and convincing that any fair-minded person who 
will attend two or three must become a Spiritist. On the 
contrary, all the sittings, from first to last, are for the 
most part unimportant, unevidential, trifling, stupid, or 
nonsensical, and the few gems which believers think they 
have found have been obtained only after the expenditure 
of a tremendous amount of time, and have been made valu- 
able only after laborious polishing and cutting. 

Indeed, as one studies the sittings in the light of what 

99 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

one knows of the sitters' personalities, one can hardly es- 
cape forming the theory — admittedly hypothetical and un- 
proven — that those who become convinced of spirit com- 
munication are to some degree of the type described by 
Miss Johnson in her " Psychology of the Sitter." Have 
not some of them had hallucinations which they perhaps 
would call veridical apparitions? Were not some suffering 
from recent bereavements when they became convinced? 
Were not some perhaps nervously exhausted or on the 
verge of nervous breakdown? Furthermore, in the case of 
Hyslop at least, the credulity which has become increas- 
ingly manifest in his writings during the last few years 
makes it impossible to consider his judgment valuable, and 
makes one sympathise thoroughly with Count Solovovo's 
estimate of his work. Not only this, but the heat and in- 
tolerance with which Hyslop attacks those who differ from 
him make one feel that now at least, whatever may have 
been the case at the start, he holds a brief and has become 
unable to see the other side. 

At the same time, his copious publications in popular 
form, as well as the various popular articles from other 
Spiritists, have led to an overbalance of the evidence in 
the public mind. The investigators who were unfavourably 
impressed by Mrs. Piper cannot make so sensational an 
article, and hence are not heard from as frequently as the 
others. We should restore the balance, and realise that, all 
in all, many more psychologists and scientists have not 
been convinced by Mrs. Piper than have been, and that 
some of these have been familiar with her sittings from 
the beginning. The weight of authority — the mere ipse 
dixit argument — is not on her side. 



CHAPTER VII 

CROSS CORRESPONDENCES: MRS. HOLLAND AND MRS. 
VERRALL 

In the Journal of the Society for Psychical Research 
for December, 1908, Sir Oliver Lodge explains the method 
of cross references: " There are three automatic writers, 
let us say: Mrs. Piper in America, Mrs. Verrall in Cam- 
bridge, and Mrs. Holland in India. All these receive au- 
tomatic writings through their hands two or three times a 
month. These writings are regularly sent in to Mr. Pid- 
dington or to Miss Alice Johnson in London, and they are 
compared from time to time to see if there is any connec- 
tion between the various messages received from the three 
writers on any given day or week. If the three writers 
wrote the same identical message, it would not be the kind 
of evidence we want, for it would clearly suggest telepathy 
between them. The message must not be intelligible to 
each separately, but must become luminous when put 
together. To take an imaginary example, suppose Mrs. 
Piper got the words ' ' British Association ' ' written through 
her hand; suppose that at the same time Mrs. Verrall 
got the word ' ' Dublin, ' ' and suppose also Mrs. Holland got 
something about a meeting at the same time, there would 
obviously be some correspondence between these three 
things. But since telepathy has become an established 
fact, such correspondence is not sufficient to establish the 
agency of an independent intelligence apart from the au- 
tomatic writers. . . . But now take a further step : sup- 
pose that in the case of Mrs. Piper the words " Francis 
Darwin " were written. That name does not suggest 
" Dublin, ' ' and it does not suggest a meeting. Suppose also 

101 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

that in Mrs. Verrall's writing the words " Parliament of 
Science," or some still more roundabout phrase, occurred. 
That would not suggest the name " Darwin," except to 
those in the inner circles of the British Association. Lastly, 
suppose that Mrs. Holland automatically drew a figure of a 
harp or a shamrock. In that case no suggestion of either 
our President, Mr. Darwin, or of the British Association 
or of Dublin would naturally be aroused. And simple 
telepathy being thus eliminated, by similar automatic pre- 
cautions intensified on these lines, we should be reduced 
to the only alternatives — either that there is some intelli- 
gence independent of the three writers influencing them 
at the same time, or that the three writers have arranged 
a little plot among themselves. 

" This is the method of cross correspondence. It was 
not devised altogether by experimenters on this side. It 
seems to have been partly invented or, at any rate, im- 
proved and developed by some members of ours who have 
crossed the boundary. We are beginning almost to speak 
about the Society for Psychical Research on the other side, 
which is quite as active and even more ingenious than that 
portion which is still 6n earth." 

This method was suggested to Miss Johnson by a study 
of the earlier scripts of Mrs. Verrall, Holland, and Forbes. 
She says, " The characteristic of these cases is that we do 
not get in the writing of one automatist anything like a 
verbal reproduction of phrases in the others: we do not 
even get the same idea expressed in different ways, as 
might well result from direct telepathy between them. 
What we get is a fragmentary utterance in one script, 
which seems to have no particular point or meaning, and 
another fragmentary utterance in the other, of an equally 
pointless character; but when we put the two together we 
see that they supplement each other, and that there is ap- 
parently one coherent idea underlying both but only par- 
tially expressed in each." Miss Johnson also notes that 

102 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

scattered through the writings are phrases like this, ' ' How 
could I make it any clearer without giving her the clew? " 
which seem to imply that some intelligence is making up 
riddles which can only be answered by putting together the 
different writings. Miss Johnson framed her theory on 
the basis of Mrs. Verrall's script and others, but not on 
Mrs. Piper's, which came later. We will first consider, 
therefore, Miss Johnson's report, contained in the Pro- 
ceedings of the Society for Psychical Research for June, 
1908, Part LV, a bulky report of 225 pages on the auto- 
matic writing of Mrs. Holland. 

" Mrs. Holland " is a pseudonym for a lady living in 
India, who has been interested in problems of Psychical 
Research for some time. In 1893 she saw a reference to 
automatic writing in the Review of Reviews, and tried 
it. Her hand at once began to write words, but nothing 
interesting came, and the questions asked were not an- 
swered. The second time that she tried, the verses were 
written, and since then most of the writing has been in 
verse, usually beginning thus : 

Believe in what thou canst not see 
Until the vision come to thee. 

I shall not take up in detail the contents of this script. 
To one who is not inclined to the spiritistic theory the 
content seems for the most part uninteresting, and the so- 
called evidential messages are either vague or referable 
to knowledge once in the medium's possession, with a small 
residuum which it seems quite as rational to refer to mere 
coincidence as to spirits. The same is true in general of 
the cross correspondences, which we will now consider in 
more detail both as given in this report and especially in 
Mr. Piddington's report on Mrs. Piper. 

Miss Johnson distinguishes from each other (a) com- 
munications in which one automatist refers to events hap- 
pening to the other or to some feature of the other's sur- 

103 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

roundings; (&) communications in which independent ref- 
erences to the same topic occur at about the same time in 
the script of both automatists. These latter alone she calls 
cross correspondences. 

She traces briefly the history of such communications. 
Myers and Hodgson while alive both made attempts to 
secure such messages, but do not seem to have kept records 
of their attempts. There are some references to them in 
Myers's letters to Mrs. Thompson, the earliest being Oc- 
tober 24, 1898. Mr. Piddington in his account of Mrs. 
Thompson (Proceedings, vol. xviii) notes some connections 
between her automatisms and those of other mediums, and 
while he thinks some of them explicable as due merely to 
similar trains of ideas, others he thinks may be referable 
to one control who is affecting the two mediums. 

After Mr. Myers's death cross correspondences began 
to increase in number, first and especially in Mrs. Verrall's 
script, which are characterised by the fact that we get in 
the two scripts apparently meaningless utterances which 
are only significant when combined. This sort disposes of 
the appeal to telepathy, Miss Johnson thinks. Her idea 
is that this group of spirits on the other side who had to 
meet all the sceptical objections while on this have, since 
going over, evolved this method in order to meet those 
objections, and are working at it systematically with this 
group of mediums. " It was not the automatists who de- 
tected it, but a student of the scripts ; it has every appear- 
ance of being an element imported from outside; it sug- 
gests an independent invention, an active intelligence con- 
stantly at work in the present, not a mere echo or remnant 
of individualities of the past." 

She notes that evidence of connection between two 
scripts would be better proved if the statements were iden- 
tical instead of merely similar, for the odds against chance 
would thus be greatly increased ; but, on the other hand, if 
the controls are trying to forestall an appeal to telepathy, 

104 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

they cannot thus give identical messages. They must not 
allow their message to reach even the subliminal conscious- 
ness of the medium, and so they must make it meaningless 
to her. This means, of course, that the correspondence will 
be detected only by a third person who is studying the two 
scripts with something like this in mind. 

But only consider for a moment the possibilities of 
error which are thus opened. Some person who believes 
that a certain spirit (usually Myers in these cases) is in- 
fluencing three different mediums, and who knew this 
spirit while he was alive and has read his writings, stud- 
ies all the automatic writings of these three mediums with 
the avowed object of discovering cryptogrammatic mean- 
ings. These writings consist very largely of disconnected 
words, vague phrases, ambiguous terms which might be 
taken literally or figuratively, etc. Under such conditions, 
of course, fragments can be patched together into a coher- 
ent whole, and the whole will be just as referable to an 
outside intelligent spirit influencing the three mediums as 
the Donnelly cryptograms are referable to Shakespeare as 
their author. Donnelly showed tremendous ingenuity in in- 
venting a method which would display through the Shake- 
speare folios a secret cipher declaring that Shakespeare was 
Bacon, but nowadays everyone recognises that he was the 
dupe of his own mental sinuosities or else a colossal joker. 
Similarly, Miss Johnson and Mr. Piddington, especially the 
latter, have totally ignored the laws of association at work 
in their own minds, and have forgotten, if indeed they ever 
knew, the tremendous influence of a preconceived theory on 
one's interpretations of facts. They are seeing ghosts in 
the dusk because they expect to see them, while a somewhat 
closer examination would show only a white gravestone 
marked: " In memoriam, F. W. H. Myers. Resurgam." 

But let us show by their own examples what this 
means, in the cross references between Mrs. Verrall and 
Mrs. Holland, the latter in India, the former in England. 
10 105 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

In December of 1903 and January of 1904 passages 
occur in Mrs. Holland's script which seem to refer to Mrs. 
Verrall, though this was not discovered for two years, be- 
cause Miss Johnson did not see Mrs. Verrall 's script until 
then. 

In March of 1905 Miss Johnson arranged with the two 
mediums that each should write regularly each Wednes- 
day in the hope of getting more correspondences, neither 
knowing who the other was, until the following October, 
when they met. 

In February of 1906 a second set of experiments was 
begun, running over several months. 

The references to Mrs. Verrall before Mrs. Holland 
tried any experiments with her are as follows, as sum- 
marised by Miss Johnson. 

1. The Sealed Envelope and Text 



Mrs. Verrall. 

December 2, 1903. On the 

17 of next month ask the 

question. 
Use the daylight hours for 

the night cometh when no 

man may work. 
January 4, 1904. Write on 

the 17. 



January 17. 2 on the seal of 

the letter. 
The question is answered 

and the text given. 



Mrs. Holland. 



January 8. The anniver- 
sary that is only nine days 
away now. 

January 17. Attempt to get 
a message through. 

Sealed envelope not to be 
opened yet. 

I Cor. xvi 13. Take the mes- 
sage to you all. 



106 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

Explanatory of this, it should be said that in October 
of 1903 Mrs. Verrall's script had told her to ask Mrs. Sidg- 
wick for a test, and Mrs. Sidgwick had asked : ' ' What was 
the last of Dr. Sidgwick 's texts — the one that belonged to 
the latter part of his life? " This referred to his taking 
some text for the key-note of his life at different times, 
and for the latter part it was, " Gather up the fragments 
that remain, that nothing be lost." It is said that Mrs. 
Verrall did not know of this custom. 

Mr. Myers is the control in both of these scripts, and 
January 17th was the anniversary of his death, a fact 
known to both mediums. 

This would sufficiently account for the references in 
both scripts to that date, and otherwise there seems no need 
of invoking cross references to explain any part of the 
messages. Miss Johnson looks upon the text, " Use the 
daylight hours," etc., as a paraphrase of the correct text, 
" Gather up the fragments that remain. ..." But why 
should we not refer it to the attempt of Mrs. Verrall's own 
consciousness to fish up the text which was wanted? Mrs. 
Sidgwick asked for the text Dr. Sidgwick used in the lat- 
ter part of his life, and Mrs. Verrall's subliminal would 
naturally guess that he would choose one that would refer 
to his getting old, and that would stimulate him to re- 
newed efforts. The reference on January 17th, saying that 
the question is answered and the text given, Miss Johnson 
thinks refers to Mrs. Holland's script of that date, but it 
might just as well refer to the text of December 2d in Mrs. 
Verrall's script and to the phrase just above, " 2} on the 
seal of the letter." 

Similarly, in Mrs. Holland's script of January 17th, 
Miss Johnson thinks that the phrase, " Attempt to get a 
message through," refers to Mrs. Verrall's script, although 
it might as well be a remark on Mrs. Holland's own, since 
the controls constantly use this phrase in such a way. 

" Take the message to you all " may mean simply to 

107 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the other Researchers, since the control knew that the writ- 
ing at this time was being sent to Miss Johnson. 

The reference to Corinthians has no bearing on Dr. 
Sidgwick 's text, being, ' ' Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, 
quit ye like men, be strong." But as it is inscribed in 
Greek over the gateway of Selwyn College, and must be 
passed in going from Mr. Myers's to Mrs. Verrall's, or to 
Dr. Sidgwick 's, Miss Johnson believes that it has signifi- 
cance, especially as it appears again over a year later in 
connection with Mrs. Verrall, without Mrs. Holland learn- 
ing of the connection in the meantime. 

The reference in both scripts to the sealed envelope 
is to me the most striking coincidence, but even this is 
by no means inexplicable, since Mrs. Holland certainly 
knew or could have surmised that Mr. Myers had left sealed 
envelopes, this being not infrequently done by the Re- 
searchers, and the anniversary of his death would be a 
time when they would most naturally be remembered and 
their contents speculated upon. There is nothing to indi- 
cate that the sealed envelope referred to is the one left by 
Dr. Sidgwick, as Miss Johnson assumes. At the same time, 
Mrs. Verrall's script had for some time been referring to 
Dr. Sidgwick 's sealed envelopes, and the reference to them 
here has therefore no special significance. 



2. Co-operation Between Different Sensitives Recommended 
Mrs. Verrall. Mrs. Holland. 



September 21, 1903. One 
person alone does so little. 



October 12, 1903. Easier 
when some one else helps. 

October 19. Evidence comes 
later for you through 
others. 

108 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

Mrs. Verrall. Mrs. Holland. 

November 7, 1903. The 
agent is all alone and that 
makes it hard. 

December 1. One does so 
little alone. 

December 5. I fear you 
will never be really re- 
sponsive trying alone. 



December 7. Sit regularly 
alone or with others. 



January 5, 1904. Words 
with a purpose, a mean- 
ing, not for you, but for 
others. 



Now it is to be noted that it was in the summer pre- 
ceding this that Mrs. Holland had read Myers's " Human 
Personality,' ' in which the cross-correspondence method is 
hinted at, and that it was during that fall that she was hav- 
ing her first correspondence with Miss Johnson, and her first 
contact with a personality at all sympathetic with hers on 
these subjects. These references in the script to her isola- 
tion are only the natural reflection of her increased recog- 
nition of it which came doubtless from this correspondence, 
and they express her own longing to come into closer touch 
with others who are working along these lines. The refer- 
ence to words with a meaning for others but not for her 
may refer to cross correspondences or simply to experiences 
that she had already had in receiving messages for ac- 
quaintances. 

Mrs. Verrall 's script probably does refer to cross cor- 
respondences, of which Mrs. Verrall had already obtained 
some, but there is no reason at all to suppose that they 
refer to Mrs. Holland, especially since the dates do not 

109 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

correspond with Mrs. Holland's by weeks, save in the one 
case of December 1st, 5th, and 7th. 

To make a cross correspondence out of two such series 
is one of the best illustrations of the lengths to which such 
interpretations can go without any real basis. 



3. Attitude of the Controls 



Mrs. Verrall. 



December 29. Listen to the 
voice of one crying and 
proclaiming in desert 
places. 



February 2. Slaves in pris- 
on, the pure have done 
prodigies. 



Mrs. Holland. 

November 26, 1903. A feel- 
ing of terrible impotence 
burdens me. I cannot get 
into communication with 
those who would under- 
stand. 



January 5. Words said — 
shouted — sung to the wind, 
may perhaps reach you 
some time. 

January 12. Does anything 
reach you, or am I only 
wailing as the wind wails 
— wordless and unheeded. 

January 6. The missionary 
spirit and the great long- 
ing to speak to the souls 
in prison. 



110 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

Surely there is nothing here sufficiently clear to mark it 
as an intentional cross correspondence, especially when we 
recall that Mrs. Holland had read Myers 's book, and there- 
fore knew the supposed difficulties spirits had in communi- 
cating, while Mrs. Verrall did also. 

The same remarks apply to their complaints that no one 
understands their message, which Miss Johnson considers 
especially apt in view of the fact that this group of cor- 
respondences was not discovered for two years. 

4. In another instance Mrs. Holland's script refers to 
the failure of the Verrall-Myers to tell correctly the con- 
tents of the sealed envelope left by Myers. Miss Johnson 
thought that probably Mrs. Holland had read one of the 
newspaper accounts of this, but as Mrs. Holland is sure she 
did not, Miss Johnson takes it as an evidential incident, but 
in other places she as well as other Researchers insist that 
any bit of knowledge which might have been known to the 
medium shall not be considered evidential, and why should 
she make this case an exception ? We do not question Mrs. 
Holland 's honesty, but we do question her memory, because 
we know that the subconscious retains many things which 
come out in just these ways. 

5. On March 1, 1905, systematic experiments were be- 
gun with Mrs. Verrall, Mrs. Holland being at that time in 
Scotland, but not knowing that Mrs. Verrall was to be the 
other party, and not then having met her. On this date, 
in Mrs. Holland's script, first the script says that jonquils 
are in a blue jar and growing tulips near the window. 
Then, after a little, the text, " Watch ye," etc., referred to 
before is given; reference to Mrs. Verrall — the initial only 
being given, and a description of a lady, of which we are 
not told whether it is correct or not as applied to Mrs. 
Verrall. 

Mrs. Verrall's script of this date had no references ap- 
plicable to Mrs. Holland. 

The introduction of the text Miss Johnson thinks the most 

111 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

notable thing, because, although Mrs. Holland might have 
guessed that Mrs. Verrall would be the other automatist, she 
would not naturally have connected this text with her. The 
Bible reference to this same text had been given January 17, 
1904, when she had been told that the sealed envelope was 
not to be opened yet, and had not appeared since. How is 
its appearance here to be explained unless it is a cross ref- 
erence? asks Miss Johnson. Why not answer that it arises 
now in much the same way as then? The adjuration to 
stand fast in the faith and quit ye like men very naturally 
comes at the beginning of such a set of experiments, and 
it would also arise when told not to open the envelope, 
but to have faith for a little longer. I think it may 
certainly be assumed that Mrs. Holland's secondary self 
had guessed that Mrs. Verrall would be her fellow-ex- 
perimenter. 

On March 8th there were no cross references. 

6. March 15th, in Mrs. Verrall 's script, music notes ap- 
peared with the statement, " She will send you something 
like them — verse I think," and, March 19th, it said that the 
lady had gone to church, and that she had a copy of Car- 
paccio's Ursula hanging in her room. 

Mrs. Holland did not send any notes or verse and she 
had no such picture, but Saturday, the day before this 
writing, she had looked at this picture frequently in a 
portfolio of drawings. 

On March 22d Mrs. Holland did have some music notes 
in her writing, but not the same. She had never had any 
notes except once, over a year before, and never since. 
Mrs. Verrall had never had any before, and but once since, 
over a year later, when they were evidently reminiscences 
of this time. 

7. March 24th, Mrs. Holland had an impression of a 
woman, and wrote out the description and sent it to Miss 
Johnson. Mrs. Verrall does not think the description of 
her appearance distinctive enough to be of any value, and 

112 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

some of it is positively wrong. Miss Johnson thinks that 
the traits mentioned are quite characteristic. Be it noted 
here that Mrs. Holland knew that Mrs. Verrall had done 
crystal gazing, and had read her article on this subject 
and gained from it that impression of a writer's personal- 
ity that all of us get from even the most colourless scien- 
tific effusion. 

On March 29th there were no cross correspondences. 

8. April 5th, Mrs. Verrall gave a description of a land- 
scape which Mrs. Holland said applied to her surroundings 
at that time, but that the trees mentioned were not char- 
acteristic. 

During the six following weeks Mrs. Holland was trav- 
elling. Every Wednesday she tried to convey an impres- 
sion to her coadjutor, but there were no coincidences at all 
in Mrs. Verrall 's script. Mrs. Verrall then tried to do 
the same for a few weeks, but these, too, were entirely 
unsuccessful. 

Over a period of fifteen or more weeks then, experi- 
menting once a week, these are the only coincidences that 
Miss Johnson can find. 

They are very few, as is evident, and the only curious 
one is, it seems to me, that of the notes. But here I should 
wonder whether there chanced to be some notable concerts 
going on, or something else which might have fixed the 
attention of both automatists upon music. Further, the 
coincidence here extends over a period of a week, and so 
is not close at best. 

On February 28, 1906, a second series of experiments 
was begun under the same general conditions as before, 
Mrs. Holland still being in England. 

1. On this date her script refers to a beautiful purple 
crocus, to the sparrows eating them, the need of pruning 
the trees, especially the pear tree, and the creepers. Mrs. 
Verrall on this date called her daughter's attention to a 
crocus, her creepers needed pruning but not her pear tree, 

113 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

and jackdaws, but not sparrows, began to pull up the cro- 
cuses at about this time. 

2. The script is sorry about A.'s sister. But A.'s (Mr. 
Verrall's) sister was having no trouble. 

3. A reference to Rhine wine was also not apropos. 

4. Henry was not mistaken (followed by a drawing 
seeming to represent hills). 

5. No, not in the Electra. M. will know better. (M. 
refers to Mrs. Verrall.) 

In Mrs. Verrall's script of this date, and thrice before 
during February, this line in Greek had appeared: " Be 
sorrow sorrow spoken but let the good prevail. ' ' This is a 
quotation from iEschylus's Agamemnon. Now, thinks 
Mrs. Verrall, the Electra of Sophocles or Euripides is 
equivalent to the Libation Bearers, the second play of the 
Trilogy of which Agamemnon is the first, and so Mrs. 
Holland's words, " No, not in the Electra," mean " the 
Greek quoted in Mrs. Verrall's script is not in the Electra, 
but in the Trilogy somewhere. " And eureka! we have a 
cross correspondence again! 

Of course the fact that at this time a translation of 
Electra was being performed in London had nothing to 
do with this reference! 

6. Again, the statement, " Henry was not mistaken," 
referring to Mr. Sidgwick, is a cross reference, because on 
this day Mrs. Verrall was reading the newly published 
Memoir of Dr. Sidgwick and was thinking in this general 
strain. 

7. The Roden Noel correspondence is worked out at 
great length, to which we cannot do justice here. In brief 
it is this: January 17, 1904, Mrs. Verrall's script had 
various references to hope, wanderer, etc., which pur- 
ported to be a message from Sidgwick, and which now, 
February 28, 1906, became explicable to Mrs. Verrall on 
reading a letter from him to an intimate friend, Mr. 
Roden Noel. 

114 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

Mrs. Verrall is confident that she had never read any of 
Mr. Noel's poems, but still her script of March 7th con- 
tained verses resembling his. This was sent to Mrs. Hol- 
land, and her next script gives the date of Noel's death, 
and later come definite references. Mrs. Holland remem- 
bered that she had read one or two of his poems. On 
March 14th her script contains numbers, written as words, 
and a reference to the central eight words of a passage in 
Revelations. These are, ' ' for it is the number of a man, ' ' 
and so Miss Johnson substituted for the numbers given 
the corresponding letters of the alphabet and found that 
they spelled Roden Noel! In some previous writing 
Hodgson had similarly given his name, so that this trick, 
though sufficiently amazing, was not entirely new. 

In both Mrs. Verrall 's and Mrs. Holland's script are 
other vague references which are considered applicable to 
Noel, and his name is clearly given once more in Mrs. 
Holland 's. 

Here it seems to me we might ask again why Miss John- 
son does not hold to the rule she herself has laid down, 
that any knowledge which may have been normally ac- 
quired is not evidential? The series of subliminal links 
seems tolerably clear. First, Mrs. Verrall reads of Noel 
in the Memoir of Sidgwick; this recalls vaguely his poems, 
and she produces verse vaguely like his in her script ; this 
shown to Mrs. Holland recalls subliminally the date of 
Noel's death, and later messages from him, his name in 
cryptogram, and other vague references both in her and 
Mrs. Verrall's script. 

8. March 2d, Mrs. Verrall 's script referred to Massiliotes 
(the Greek name for natives of Marseilles) and Posilipo 
(near Naples, the site of Virgil's tomb). Mrs. Holland's 
script of this date, written twelve hours later, remarked 
that M. saw a real place that last time but had never seen 
the place itself, and did not describe it very clearly. This 
true of Posilipo. Mrs. Holland's father intended to 
115 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

start for Marseilles the next month, and go thence to Sicily 
and Greece. Hence this is a cross correspondence. 

9. February 9th, in Mrs. Holland's script, appears the 
name Fawcett; February 28th, Broadlands was mentioned, 
a place where Fawcett visited and fished, as mentioned in 
Leslie Stephens's life of him; March 28th, a reference to 
Henry F., darkened windows, and a drawing of spectacles ; 
April 4th, spectacles, whip, and letter, all drawn, are taken 
to refer to him. 

In Mrs. Verrall's script, March 20th, planchette told 
her and Mrs. Forbes to open the last morning paper at 
marriages and deaths and look for his name over the col- 
umn. The first name was Fawcett. Mrs. Yerrall had rela- 
tives of this name, but they were not connected with Henry 
Fawcett. 

Now, two things alone explain this entirely: First of 
all, Mrs. Holland frequently visited relatives who lived in 
Wiltshire, where Henry Fawcett did, and though they did 
not move there until ten years after his death, they doubt- 
less heard various stories about him, as he was so eminent 
a man, and this name might as well crop up in Mrs. Hol- 
land's writing as many another. In the second place, on 
February 21st, Mrs. Verrall met Mrs. Holland and said 
at that time that the name " Fawcett " had special asso- 
ciations for her. Up to this date the name had appeared 
but once in Mrs. Holland's script, and then was inter- 
jected among unrelated matter. But the hint was enough, 
and we have all the following references, but all referring 
to the Fawcett of whom she knew, who happened to be the 
wrong one. 

The planchette reference is easily explicable as one of 
the subconscious memories, of which Miss Goodrich-Freer 
gives rather a parallel incident, of seeing in the crystal 
an announcement in the paper, of which she had no 
memory. 

10. In Mrs. Verrall's script of March 2d, 4th, and 5th 

116 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

were various vague references to ' ' first among his peers, ' ' 
" pagan and pope," Gregory, Basil, Reformer, " club- 
bearer," etc. In Mrs. Holland's of March 7th, among 
many other things comes the sentence, " Ave Roma Im- 
mortalis. How could I make it any clearer without giv- 
ing her the clew? " 

Mrs. Verrall's scripts had recalled to Dr. Yerrall a 
picture of Attila terrified by the vision of St. Peter and 
St. Paul, when meeting Pope Leo, who went out to meet 
him and save Rome. 

Mrs. Verrall knew this picture, but it was not recalled 
to her by the script. 

The sentence in Mrs. Holland's script does fit in aptly 
here, especially the question part of it, ' ' How could I make 
it any clearer without giving her the clew ? ' ' But the fol- 
lowing sentence makes us question whether it really was so 
apt. This is : " How cold it was that winter. Even snow 
in Rome — we might have stayed at home for that. ' ' Taken 
in this connection, all the sentences seem to become unmis- 
takably a reference to some previous visit to Rome and 
some incident which happened there. 

11. On April 11th Mrs. Verrall's script introduces the 
idea of flight in various ways; and, among many other 
things, in connection with a passage supposed to refer to 
the eruption of Vesuvius then going on, Mrs. Holland's 
writer exclaims, eheu fugaces! She also refers to an 
owl, and Mrs. Verrall notes that on that evening she 
saw an owl more distinctly than ever before in her life — 
a real owl. 

This perhaps gives the key to Mrs. Verrall's script, 
which was not written until later, 11 p.m., and refers to 
the " black bat night has flown," " something fluttered 
and was gone, ' ' evidently derived from her earlier out-of- 
door experience. 

Mrs. Holland, on the other hand, felt that the phrase 
in her script, " an owl this evening," was simply a ref- 

117 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

erence to her own stupidity, the phrase being a common 
Indian phrase of reproach. 

Since then these phrases are easily explicable for each 
automatist, why should we suppose any cross corre- 
spondence ? 

The other successful cross references obtained through 
Mrs. Verrall's writing are the following: 

1. Before Mrs. Verrall knew Mrs. Archdale, a medium, 
the following passage, then meaningless to her, had oc- 
curred in the writing: " Women are bound or abound. 
Stewart and Haslemere — what do they here? Hazelrigg 
is better." Stewart was the name of Mrs. Archdale 's con- 
trol, and Haslemere had definite connections with him, 
while Hazelrigg was very similar to another name con- 
nected with him. 

2. Between May 1 and May 11, 1901, the following 
messages came: 

(a) Before 17th it is easier now to write. 

(b) Rosa Thompson could perhaps but I don't know. 

(c) Nescio quid interponit se tuae menti mihi que. In 
a glass is truth reversed read and then search. False- 
hood is never far away. Quid mihi vis? non possum, 
desine. desjum (2o, 206) die finito, avBcr clock and time. H. 
No power — doing something else to night. Note hour. 
(Then attempts at drawing, and when Mrs. Verrall copied 
the script afterward, she thought she was looking at a 
clock marking 10.25.) 

(d) Before the 17th wait. Rosa Thompson will speak 
— Lodge will tell you. Wait. Do not hurry date this. 

Mrs. Verrall says that the expectation she formed from 
this script was that on May 17th Sir Oliver would tell her 
of something learned from Mrs. Thompson, the medium, 
and that some medium had received a communication from 
H., a dead friend, just before 10.25 p.m. on May 8th. 

As it turned out really, on May 8th, Mrs. Thompson 
was dining with the Lodges, and went into a trance be- 

118 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

tween 10 and 10.40 in which H. appeared, besides her 
usual control, and used the words " falsehood creeping 
in," and at the end of the sitting the usual control said 
that some one was calling H. Mrs. Verrall heard of this 
first on May 17th. 

One would suppose from this that Mrs. Verrall *s sub- 
conscious self inferred that she was to meet Sir Oliver 
on the 17th. Again, she knew that Mrs. Thompson had 
sittings with Sir Oliver frequently, so that here, as in other 
cases, her familiarity with the possibilities of the situation 
makes it impossible to consider the script as more than the 
expression of her more or less unconscious putting together 
of many factors. 

3. Mrs. Thompson had asked Mrs. Verrall to try for 
writing on a certain evening between nine and ten. At this 
time the script wrote: " There is some one with Mrs. 
Thompson, another woman, taller and slighter — she helps 
her to write — the message is not clear to you. I do not 
know the house. I cannot take you there. ' ' A week later, 
and before she had heard anything from Mrs. Thompson, 
the hand wrote, " Mrs. Thompson named a name, but 
not yours — Nelly could help if she could come — she finds 
it hard to write and would easily speak." 

Later, Mrs. Verrall heard that on the first evening Mrs. 
Thompson had with her a friend answering to the descrip- 
tion, and that Mrs. Thompson had referred by name to 
Mrs. Verrall 's daughter, but we are left ignorant as to 
whether the place of the sitting was an unknown place, 
or whether from the way Mrs. Thompson made her request, 
Mrs. Verrall did not have some reason to infer that some 
one would be with her while she was sitting. Of course, 
the description of the woman is too indefinite to have value. 

4. The script wrote : ' ' Betwixt dark and light a gray 
figure in the bedroom not to be feared you will see on an 
anniversary — note the date — this year. Put the conversation 
on paper that is all I can see. Try other nights." 

119 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

No such figure was seen by any one as far as can be 
discovered, but six weeks later, in Mrs. Piper's sitting, a 
reference was made by the control to a vision which it said 
Mrs. Verrall's daughter had seen while she was awake in 
a bedroom. Mrs. Verrall, however, could not find that 
her daughter had had any such vision. The point here, 
however, is the curious cross reference to the non-reality, 
but the six weeks' lapse of time and the vagueness of the 
reference make it of little value. 

5. Next is a curious cross reference. January 28, 1902, 
at Mrs. Piper's sitting, Dr. Hodgson proposed to try for 
a cross reference, and asked the control if he could make 
Helen (Mrs. Verrall's daughter) see him holding a spear 
in his hand. The control asked, " Why a sphere? " Dr. 
Hodgson repeated the word " spear," and the control 
assented. February 4th, at another sitting, he said he had 
made himself visible successfully with a " sphear." 

January 31st, Mrs. Verrall was in London, and had so 
strong a desire to write that she excused herself from 
walking over to a meeting with some friends and sat down 
to write, getting the following message: " Panopticon (p. 
214, followed by a phrase in Greek) volatile ferrum — pro 
telo impinget." 

The Greek is not very good, but the general sense of 
the message is, in Mrs. Verrall's own words, " some sort 
of universal seeing of a sphere fosters the mystic joint 
reception. Why did you not give it? The flying iron 
for a weapon will hit." Soon after she found " volatile 
ferrum " used in Virgil for spear. 

Mrs. Verrall states that she did not hear of this sit- 
ting of Mrs. Piper until February 7th, and that in no 
previous writing had there been any reference to a spear, 
and but one to a sphere, which would seem to put chance 
out of the question here. 

6. One Sunday, between 11 and 12 a.m., Mrs. Forbes, a 
medium, was writing with planchette, and it referred to 

120 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

Mrs. Verrall, and then said that she was sitting in a chair, 
very comfortable, " but don't ask me to look over her 
shoulder, for I can't see that she has got a book." Two 
weeks later Mrs. Verrall, asked to tell what she had been 
doing then, recalled that she had been sitting by her hus- 
band in a low chair, looking over with him an article 
written by her. He had told her to make herself comfort- 
able. Mrs. Verrall herself does not consider this evidential 
because she did not write out what she was doing till two 
weeks later. 

7. On August 28, 1901, the script wrote, in Latin, ' ' Sign 
with the seal. The fir tree that has already been planted 
in the garden gives its own portent." There followed a 
rough scrawl, and three rough drawings, which might be 
variously interpreted, the first as a cross or a sword; the 
second as a sail boat or a bugle hanging by a cord ; the third 
as almost anything, but Mrs. Verrall calls it a pair of 
scissors (p. 223). 

On this same date, but it is not known what time of 
day, though probably before Mrs. Verrall 's writing, Mrs. 
Forbes 's control wrote, ' ' I am looking for a sensitive who 
writes to tell Father to believe I can write through you — . . 
I have to sit with our friend Edmund to control the sen- 
sitive. ' ' 

Xow, the cross reference here is that Mrs. Forbes has 
some small firs in her garden grown from seed sent her 
by this son while abroad, and that the badge of his regi- 
ment is a suspended bugle surmounted by a crown. Mrs. 
Verrall did not know either of these facts until several 
months later. The drawings, however, are too indefinite, 
and the reference to the firs might be accidental. 

8. On November 23d Mrs. Verrall's writing tried to 
give a message from a brother of Mrs. Sidgwick who was 
only slightly known to Mrs. Verrall, and, November 25th, 
came another message along the same line. Mrs. Ver- 
rall was disturbed over it because she did not like to write 

11 121 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

to Mrs. Sidgwiek for information about a comparative 
stranger. 

On November 25th Mrs. Forbes wrote, first a confused 
message from Gurney and a clearer one from her usual 
control, Talbot, to tell Mrs. Verrall at once that the 
" friends were with her when she was with Mrs. Sidgwiek." 
" To be with," in Mrs. Forbes 's writing, means to sympa- 
thise with, and seems to indicate a knowledge of Mrs. Ver- 
rall's disturbed state of mind — but is too indefinite. 

9. Mrs. Verrall had agreed to sit for automatic writing 
at a certain time each day, and Mrs. Forbes was to do the 
same, but on a visit at a friend's Mrs. Verrall was pre- 
vented for two successive days, and was greatly annoyed 
over it, and finally wrote to Mrs. Forbes that she would 
not try to sit until she returned home. The same day that 
she wrote, Mrs. Forbes received this message for Mrs. Ver- 
rall: " Mrs. Verrall to try to see for H. H says — to say 
friends can wait is far from courteous. . .would it seem fair 
for the spirits to sit for work for hours . . . she sat with 
foolish ..." and various other remarks about the importance 
of regularity for the writing. So it would seem that the 
spirits had discovered her absence and were reproaching 
her for it, or that Mrs. Forbes 's subconscious self had re- 
ceived some message from Mrs. Verrall telepathic ally. But 
Mrs. Forbes knew she was visiting and would not have con- 
trol of her time, so that the subconscious self may have 
inferred a failure. 

10. Mrs. Forbes received in her writing the name of a 
certain control, followed by a single word, and then a mes- 
sage from Talbot, saying that this control " wanted you 
to try for a test with our friend at Cambridge. Write to 
Mrs. Verrall to-day." It seems that this particular word 
in connection with this control had a deep meaning to Mrs. 
Verrall, quite unknown to Mrs. Forbes, but we do not know 
enough about this to judge. 

11. Mrs. Verrall and her daughter, writing with plan- 

122 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

chette, had a message from Talbot saying, " My mother 
has had a wounded man to stay with her." Inquiry 
showed that she had had a man very ill with sciatica at 
her home. 

12. On July 11th Mrs. Forbes had a reference to Mrs. 
Verrall in her writing, and, July 13th, Mrs. Verrall's hand 
wrote that a message for her went instead to Mrs. Forbes. 
The hand purported to be controlled by Talbot, Mrs. 
Forbes 's usual control, and wrote further that the message 
was about the water, and referred to his lilies. Mrs. Forbes, 
in sending her automatic script of July 11th to Mrs. Ver- 
rall, referred to the heavy rains in England. And she had 
in her garden some lilies that had lately bloomed, and 
others grown from seed sent by Talbot that had bloomed 
earlier in the season. But rain and lilies are too common 
for the coincidence to be valuable. 

Mrs. Verrall's message of July 13th also referred to the 
21st and 23d of the month as dates of interest for auto- 
matic writing, and on July 23d her hand wrote, " double 
discharge — but do not ask." 

On this date also Mrs. Forbes 's hand wrote, " will you 
see for H for writing to prove identity ? . . . Will you write 
to Mrs. Verrall?. . He only wants to write — you to write 
for him to Mrs. Verrall. ' ' 

This constituted the ' ' double discharge, ' ' and is a curi- 
ous coincidence. 

13. Mrs. Forbes wrote Mrs. Verrall that a test was being 
prepared for her, and twelve days later came this message 
for her : * ' H wishes Mrs. Verrall to open the last book she 
read for him in which is the true word of the test. If she 
will try to begin the sentence with this word he will be 
sure to prove his being the writer ..." 

Mrs. Verrall puzzled over the meaning of this mes- 
sage for two days, but finally decided that she would 
fix upon a passage from Plato's Symposium referring to 
Diotima. 

123 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

About three weeks later Mrs. Forbes 's hand wrote mes- 
sages to Mrs. Verrall from three controls, as follows : 

From H. " . . . word. . . H make it. . . with the- Diony- 
sus Dion.-" 

From Gurney : " ... Edmund writes to tell the friend 
— who writes with Talbot word of the test will be Dy. . . 
Will you give the sense of the message, write to Mrs. Ver- 
rall and say the word will be found in Myers' own. . .will 
you send a message to Mrs. Verrall to say H will see with 
her on Friday ..." 

From Talbot : ... ' ' Talbot writes to say you can be 
sure, .it is one of the most Hymeneal songs, — Love's oldest 
melody. ' ' 

Mrs. Forbes has no knowledge of Plato nor of Diotima. 
There were later attempts to complete the reference to the 
Symposium, in other writings, combinations of letters like 
" son," " suspuro," etc., and several times " symp " fol- 
lowed in letters of a different size, completing sympathy, 
but the complete name was never obtained. 

14. January 14, 1903, Mrs. Verrall's hand wrote, " Mrs. 
Forbes has sent it to you — or should have by now ; she has 

got nearer and will get the word " Mrs. Forbes had 

had a message on January 11th containing Greek letters and 
an attempt at the word, but had not sent it at once as usual. 

15. One Sunday Mrs. Verrall fixed her attention 
strongly upon some former conversations with her friend 
H. before writing. 

Two days later Mrs. Forbes 's hand wrote: " H writes 
to say Verrall . . Verrall saw with H on Sunday. ' ' 

16. In the midst of other things there appeared in Mrs. 
Verrall's script, in a hand resembling Mrs. Forbes 's writ- 
ing, the words, " Harriet de Vane with another." 

Mrs. Verrall sent this to Mrs. Forbes, and ascertained 
that a pastel drawing of her great-grandmother, by Har- 
riet de Vim, hangs in a room where Mrs. Verrall had 
probably seen it, but the name of the artist is not visible. 

124 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

This is not really a cross reference. Mrs. Verrall may 
have known this but forgotten it. 

17. Between 6 and 6.30 p.m. one day Mrs. Verrall's hand 
wrote : ' ' Mrs. Forbes has got a message but not about the 
word, you must wait for that. " ... Then came some gen- 
eral remarks and a blank in which she thinks she dropped 
to sleep, and upon waking the hand continued, " It has 
helped them and you will get a message now plain to read. ' ' 

At six the same day Mrs. Forbes and a friend be- 
gan a sitting, writing first with a glass and letters, 
spelling the words, and later using the planchette. The 
complete message was: " Tell Mrs. Verrall to take care — 
to go — to Hove when she is visiting Brighton ALFRED. 
(Then with planchette.) Tell Mrs. Verrall H sees with a 
trouble of which he cannot speak — you will know — when 
he writes — Hove." 

Now, Mrs. Verrall was seriously concerned over the 
trouble of a friend Alfred who lived at Hove near 
Brighton, and for a week preceding this sitting had been 
receiving letters about the trouble. The friend was not 
known either to Mrs. Forbes or her friend, and Mrs. Ver- 
rall is sure they knew nothing of this matter. 

18. A possible cross reference recommending Mrs. Ver- 
rall and Mrs. Forbes to write on Wednesday, but it is not 
certain that the same Wednesday was meant. 

19. Mrs. Forbes had this message : " ... A grower of 
flowers one year will be sower of seed. — Send this message. 
Edmund writes for H. to ask you to say it will be far less 
difficult to read the sense if the younger Verrall writes 
with Planchette . . . ' ' 

Miss Helen Verrall, on reading this script, said that in 
a recent visit to a friend there had been much discussion 
with the gardener over whether certain plants should be 
raised from seeds or cuttings. But the reference is so in- 
definite as to have little value. 

20. At the end of a message Mrs. Forbes 's hand wrote 

125 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

that Mrs. Verrall would be in telepathic communication 
with " Mrs. S., Alice." 

On the date of this writing Mrs. Verrall had received 
a letter from Mrs. Alice Dew Smith verifying a reference 
to her in a previous automatic writing. A coincidence — not 
really a cross reference. 

21. July 26th, Mrs. Forbes tried to make Mrs. Ver- 
rall's writing produce the idea of lilies, but she did not 
succeed. This was to be done through the help of Edmund 
Gurney, one of Mrs. Verrall's writers. Six hours after 
Mrs. Forbes began the experiment, Miss Verrall had an 
automatic writing signed for the first and only time with 
Gurney 's name, and nearly a month later came a refer- 
ence to lilies, with references to a belt of rhododendrons, 
daisies, and Renoldson. 

The last two seemed to have no meaning, but Mrs. Forbes 
had had a belt of rhododendrons planted since the Verralls 
had visited her. 

22. Mrs. VerralPs hand wrote: " The picture in the 
picture frame — upon the wall — & no name upon it — in her 
room, ask Mrs. Forbes. ' ' Mrs. Forbes had recently framed 
a tiny picture without a name on it, before this date, but 
it was not hung on the wall. Not a cross reference — prob- 
ably a guess. 

23. In a conversation with a friend Mrs. Verrall made 
the remark, with reference to psychical experiments, 
' ' Anyhow, they teach one patience . . ' ' 

On the same day Mrs. Forbes and Mrs. Baltimore, writ- 
ing, received an " insistent command " to send the follow- 
ing message to Mrs. Verrall : ' ' The last lesson to be learned 
is Patience; Mrs. Verrall is our friend who has so much 
— she will be rewarded by making plain the tangle." 

24. On October 6th Mrs. Verrall's script said that Mrs. 
Forbes 's mother would want her much that winter, and 
she would be in the south. November 30th, Mrs. Forbes 
told Mrs. Verrall of her mother's illness, and, December 

126 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES 

2d, she was telegraphed to go to her mother's home in the 
south, where she had to stay for some time. This may 
have been inference from subconscious suggestions. 

25. A doubtful connection between Mrs. Verrall and 
Mrs. Forbes, but a more distinct one between Mrs. Verrall 
and her daughter (p. 263). 

These cross references are of a comparatively simple 
type, and, as we have noted in connection with each one, 
many of them lend themselves to a naturalistic explana- 
tion quite as well as to a spiritistic. When we consider the 
imperfect recording of coincident circumstances, which 
might explain in the case of each medium how the idea 
happened to rise in her mind, it does not seem unreason- 
able to assume that the remainder might also be explained 
without calling in the aid of departed spirits. 



CHAPTER VIII 
CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

Mr. Piddington devotes 440 pages to this same subject 
of cross correspondences in his report entitled, " A Series 
of Concordant Automatisms " (Proceedings of the Society 
for Psychical Research, Part LVII, vol. xxii), which deals 
with cross references between Mrs. Piper and other au- 
tomatists, especially Mrs. Verrall. 

This material was obtained between November 10, 1906, 
and June 2, 1907, when Mrs. Piper was in England, and 
gave seventy-four sittings. Altogether, about 120 experi- 
ments in cross correspondence were made. In eighteen cases 
the word given to the Piper controls to be transmitted was 
selected by those in charge of the sittings ; in over 100 by 
the controls. Of the eighteen selected " on this side," but 
one was certainly successful. Of the 100 odd selected 
" on the other side," twenty-two were counted successful. 
But Mr. Piddington does not believe that success is to 
be measured by numbers here, but by the definiteness of 
the correspondence. He discusses twenty-three correspond- 
ences, and gives a long section to the test question put in 
Latin to the Myers control on this subject. 

Mrs. and Miss Verrall knew that cross-correspondence 
experiments were being tried with Mrs. Piper, and after 
the middle of March Mrs. Holland also knew it. It is alto- 
gether probable therefore, that, quite unconsciously to the 
automatists, their secondary selves were trying to tune 
themselves to Mrs. Piper, and when we add that Mrs. Ver- 
rall had ten sittings with Mrs. Piper, and Miss Verrall had 
four, we can see that there was considerable opportunity 

128 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

for them to learn the characteristics of the Piper controls 
and vice versa. Furthermore, they and Mrs. Holland were 
familiar with the published records of the Piper case, 
and had this additional knowledge of the controls. No 
allowance whatever seems to be made in Mr. Pidding- 
ton 's report for the effects of such knowledge, and yet it 
is probably the explanation of whatever real connections 
there are. 

Furthermore, Mr. Piddington drew upon the writing of 
all three, or sometimes four, for his correspondences, no 
matter whether the control said he was going to take it to 
any particular one ,or not, and he seems to set no time limit. 
He thus enlarges his chances tremendously of finding such 
connections. Suppose that in the letters of four normal 
persons the same subject should chance to be referred to 
within a period of four or five months, who would assume 
that some spirit had controlled these four persons to refer 
to that subject? Knowing even as little as we do about 
the laws of association and the way in which a given sub- 
ject is oftentimes in the air, such an assumption is ridicu- 
lous, and even more ridiculous if applied to the subliminal 
mind, whose memories seem so much more tenacious than 
those of the supraliminal. 

But not only does Mr. Piddington do this, but any 
shadow of association is eagerly seized as proof of the sub- 
tlety of the control in forming these cross connections. For 
instance: on November 15th, in Mrs. Piper's trance, Hodg- 
son said that he would give " St. Paul " to Mrs. Holland. 
On December 31st Mrs. Holland 's script gives a reference, 
II Peter i, 15; and then gives quotations from John's, 
James's, and Paul's Epistles, and out of these four Mr. 
Piddington is certain that the control regarded the refer- 
ence to Paul alone as of value. January 12th, Miss Ver- 
rall's script contained the phrase, " robbing Peter to pay 
Paul," and, February 26th, the script remarks that she 
has not understood about Paul and should ask Lodge. 

129 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

(Lodge was the sitter to whom Hodgson said that he would 
carry the message, " St. Paul," to Mrs. Holland.) 

Now, there were six weeks between the first mention of 
St. Paul in Mrs. Piper's trance and that in Mrs. Holland's, 
and nearly two months before it was referred to in Miss 
Verrall's. Nevertheless, it is a cross correspondence! 

Here is another interesting series. On February 11th 
Mrs. Verrall's script had a drawing of three converging 
arrows followed by the words, ll tria convergentia in 
unum." The next day at Mrs. Piper's sitting Hodgson 
said that he had given " arrow " to Mrs. Verrall; and, 
February 17th, Miss Verrall's script had a drawing of an 
arrow with the words, " many together "; February 18th, 
Mrs. Verrall had several words beginning with " ar " in 
her script; February 19th, the Hodgson control says that 
Mrs. Verrall wrote " ar " and " w," and, March 18th, her 
script again had drawings of a bow and arrow, arrow, and 
target. During this time at various of Mrs. Piper's sit- 
tings the Hodgson control brings this up and says that he 
is trying to make Mrs. Verrall write the word, and Pid- 
dington tells him that she has drawn an arrow and written 
words beginning with " ar. " Let us note further that, Jan- 
uary 29th and 30th, Mrs. Verrall had two sittings with Mrs. 
Piper. Instead of suggesting spirit communications, such a 
series rather suggests some common impression received by 
the automatists and thus reproduced, which we will discuss 
in connection with " cup " (p. 136). 

February 6th, Mrs. Verrall's script contained several 
references to laurel, and at no other time during this period 
was there any such reference ; February 26th, almost three 
weeks later, the Myers control in Mrs. Piper's sitting said 
that he gave Mrs. Verrall laurel wreath, and, March 17th, 
for the only time, Miss Verrall's script had two references 
to laurel. Mrs. Verrall had no sittings with Mrs. Piper 
during this time, but we get the germ of this whole matter 
in a sitting which she had January 21st, when Rector asked 

130 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

her if she got the message ' ' wreath, ' ' in her writing, which 
he had tried to transmit. She said that she did not under- 
stand, but it would certainly seem that her subliminal mind 
set to work on this and later produced " laurel wreath," 
the addition of laurel being quite in accordance with her 
classical training. 

For the introduction of laurel three weeks later, in the 
Piper sitting, it is harder to get the connecting link. We 
might ask whether the Piper control was not more or less 
consciously trying to elaborate its first suggestion of 
" wreath," according to its knowledge of Mrs. Verrall, 
aided perhaps by casual references before the waking Mrs. 
Piper to " laurel wreath." Did Mrs. Piper not visit gal- 
leries or see statues crowned with laurel wreaths in the 
meantime, which would give that agile subconsciousness 
of hers all the suggestion necessary? With regard to Miss 
Verrall 's script, we are not told that her mother did not 
refer to Rector's puzzling statement about " wreath," and 
if she did it explains the occurrence here. 

One of the most complete incidents, and most import- 
ant in Mr. Piddington 's eyes, is the " avrbs ovpavbs aKVfiwv" 
correspondence. Mrs. Verrall had had in mind for some 
time to give a test to the Piper-Myers of his personality. 
She wanted something which Mrs. Piper could not know, 
and which would have been very familiar to Myers, com- 
plex and involving associations, and probably known to him. 
On January 15th the Myers control referred to " celestial 
halcyon days " in a sitting with Mrs. Verrall, and a week 
later, through a complex association of ideas, this phrase 
suggested to Mrs. Verrall the Greek words given above, 
which may be translated, " The very Heaven waveless." 
These are a quotation from the fifth book of the Enneades 
of Plotinus, and are part of a passage in which he is de- 
scribing the conditions for attaining ecstasy, and is empha- 
sising the necessity of having the proper conditions in ex- 
ternal nature as well as of body and mind. These words, 

131 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Mrs. Verrall believed, would satisfy her test conditions. 
They were in Greek and so unknown to the waking Mrs. 
Piper; the answer could be short; they could be proved 
to be known to Myers, for they were translated in his 
" Human Personality " (but the Greek words were not 
given) ; and the Greek words, but without translation, 
headed a poem of his on Tennyson in his book, " Frag- 
ments of Prose and Poetry ' ' ; the answer involves many 
associations with ecstasy and so on. 

Before we begin the discussion of this incident let us 
see what opportunities there may have been for Mrs. Piper 
to learn these words and their meaning. 

1. The Greek words, but not the translation, are con- 
nected with Tennyson as above mentioned. Mrs. Piper is 
sure that she never had heard of this book, and the pub- 
lishers, Longmans, wrote Professor James that in the first 
three months after publication they sold only twenty-five 
copies direct in Boston. "We are not told, however, how 
long this book had been out at the time of the test. Mrs. 
Piper may be entirely sincere in saying that she remem- 
bers nothing of ever seeing the book, but since the rule of 
the Researchers is not to consider any possible normal 
knowledge as evidential, Mr. Piddington ought to assume 
that she has seen it. If she has, then she connects these 
Greek words with Tennyson, and since she knows the mean- 
ing of " ouranos," learned in Professor Newbold's work 
with her in " translating " the first phrase of the Lord's 
Prayer from Greek, she connects together the Greek word 
for Heaven and Tennyson. 

2. It is to be assumed that she has read ' ' Human Per- 
sonality," and so has read the translation of this passage 
(with no Greek words given) as from Plotinus. 

She may, then, have seen the Greek words in connec- 
tion with Myers and Tennyson, and their English transla- 
tion in connection with Myers's " Human Personality " 
and Plotinus. Is there any natural way in which, in the 

132 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

course of the sixteen weeks during which this correspond- 
ence was being worked out, she could have associated the 
Greek forms with the English 1 

January 29, 1907, the Greek was given to the Myers 
control, and he was told that it had been suggested by some 
passages in Mrs. Verrall's script, and was asked to show 
that he understood its meaning. Mrs. Verrall expected for 
answer either, 1, a translation; 2, a reference to Myers's 
poem on Tennyson; or, 3, a reference to Plotinus and 
" Human Personality." 

January 30th, Mrs. Verrall thought there were vague 
references to Tennyson, but nothing very definite. She had 
no further sittings until April 29th, so that suggestion from 
her is eliminated. Mr. Piddington also tells us that while 
he knew the meanings of the individual Greek words, he 
only guessed at " akumon," and did not know that this 
passage had especial associations with Myers's " Human 
Personality," Tennyson, and Plotinus. The other sitters 
during this interval were Mr. Macalister, Mrs. Sidgwick, a 
Mr. and Mrs. Russel, Mrs. Forbes for two sittings, and one 
or two others. Mrs. Forbes knew about the experiments, 
and had herself had some correspondences with Mrs. Ver- 
rall. Did she know about this test question, and could she 
have involuntarily helped out the control? 

At any rate, this is the progress of events : In Mrs. Ver- 
rail's script there were, of course, various references to the 
experiment, and, finally, on February 26th her hand wrote, 
" I think I have made him understand," but added that 
the best reference would not come through Mrs. Piper. 
Then followed the quotation, ' ' And may there be no moan- 
ing at the bar — my Pilot face to face, ' ' and the statement 
that the last poems of Tennyson and Browning should be 
compared. March 6th, however, Mrs. Verrall's control 
doubts if he has been able to make the message clear. 

On this latter date Mr. Piddington read the Piper con- 
trols a letter from Mrs. Verrall asking for a clearer state- 

133 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

ment of the meaning of the Greek, and in the course of the 
sitting the Myers control suddenly gave the words, ' ' Cloud- 
less sky horizon." In the waking stage Mrs. Piper re- 
peated, ' ' Moaning at the bar when I put out to sea, ' ' and a 
little later the name, ' ' Arthur Hallam ' ' ; and the words, 
" good bye, Margaret." 

March 11th, the Myers control said that he had given 
Mrs. Verrall " bar," making a rough drawing, as a sign, 
and that she might see he understood the Greek. Pidding- 
ton told him that she had written a quotation with this 
word, and then Myers reminded him that he had given the 
same quotation a week earlier. 

There were no further references to the Greek until 
April 24th, when Mrs. Verrall had a sitting for the pur- 
pose of reviving it. She wanted now to get a reference to 
" Human Personality " and Plotinus. But this sitting 
was confused in the extreme, the writing was bad, and 
Myers told Miss Johnson explicitly that the Greek re- 
minded him of Socrates and the Iliad, misspelling both 
names. 

Now, in " Human Personality " (vol. ii, p. 291), where 
the translation of this passage is given, the name of Plotinus 
is also given, the word ' ' Heaven, ' ' and especially the com- 
bination, ' ' for Plotinus the flooding immensity of Heaven. ' ' 
A little below this follows the Greek phrase, " oios yap ipvero 
"IXiov "Ektw/3," in which the word Ilion, even in Greek charac- 
ters, is surely readable by a person ignorant of Greek, es- 
pecially since a little below is a reference in English to 
Hector and Troy. 

We have this condition then: January 30th, the Piper 
control, Myers, made vague references to Tennyson which 
were at least not discouraged, and he knew that the Greek 
word ' ' ouranos ' ' meant Heaven. In the period of incuba- 
tion from January 30th to March 6th (when Mrs. Verrall 
was not sitting) there were no references to the Greek, but 
we do not know in what connections the subjects of sky and 

134 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

horizon may have emerged, nor whether Tennyson was not 
brought up. The fact that March 6th, after a letter from 
Mrs. Verrall was read, her first name, Margaret, was given 
is surely not surprising, and aside from this there is noth- 
ing at all to connect the words " cloudless sky horizon " 
or the quotation from Tennyson with her or with the Greek. 
But the fact that, as Mr. Piddington says, he himself took 
the phrase to be a rough translation of the Greek gave the 
control a clew that this was the direction for him to go, 
and so, March 11th, we find him saying that Mrs. Verrall 
might see he had understood the Greek because he had given 
her ' ' bar. ' ' That is, he thought the quotation was the sat- 
isfactory thing and not the disjointed words. 

Again came a period of incubation until April 24th, 
when he connected Iliad and Socrates with the Greek. It 
surely seems as if we had here an imperfect memory of this 
passage in " Human Personality "; viz., vague knowledge 
by the control that something with Heaven or sky in it is 
wanted, and that such a passage occurred in the book; 
memory of the Greek characters, which might especially 
impress a person who did not understand them and had 
tried to puzzle them out, and especially a memory of Ilion, 
the one word which was intelligible. The bringing in of 
Socrates may have been merely an accidental association, 
since Socrates is far and away the best-known Greek to the 
general public. 

But probably Miss Johnson's reception of this associa- 
tion of Iliad and Socrates with the Greek quotation showed 
the control again that he was wrong, and led to at least 
subconscious workings of Mrs. Piper's mind upon the prob- 
lem in the two weeks before May 6th, resulting on that date 
in the victorious announcement to Mrs. Sidgwick, " Will 
you say to Mrs. Verrall Plotinus," and in answer to her 
question as to what that was, his reply, " My answer to 
autos ouranos akumon." 

Of course such an explanation as this is in part hypo- 
135 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

thetical, but it seems no more so than Mr. Piddington 's, and 
is more probable. Until these possibilities are disposed of, 
at least, we do not need to assume spirit agencies at 
work. 

One of the closest coincidences in time is that of Cup. 
In Mrs. Piper's sitting of March 18th " Cup " is given as 
a cross correspondence. March 19th, Mrs. Verrall's script 
referred to a silver cup, and had a picture of two hunting 
crops over a cup. On the same day Mrs. Holland, then in 
India, wrote about a cup worn in the stone by water drops, 
and this was the only time in this period that the word 
appeared in her script. It was also the only time that it 
appeared in Mrs. VerraH's. This is indeed a striking co- 
incidence, but here again we ought to know much more 
about the previous conditions in all the automatists' minds 
before we take it as a cross correspondence. 

February 27th, Mrs. Verrall's script contained the 
name ' ' Diana ' ' and a passage in Latin evidently descriptive 
of her. March 13th, the name was not given, but the idea 
seemed to be in general similar with confused references 
to events in the history of Artemis. As early as January 
7th ' ' Diana ' ' had been given, apparently referring to Mrs. 
Forbes, whose first name is Diana. 

January 16th, Mrs. Holland referred to " Henry," and 
gave a quotation from ' ' Macbeth, ' ' and another from Ten- 
nyson 's play " The Cup," with other reminiscences of this 
play. In Mrs. Verrall's script of March 13th there was also 
a reference to ' ' Macbeth. ' ' 

We get a clew here in the fact that Henry Irving played 
" Macbeth " and " The Cup " in London that winter, 
though we are not told just when. 

The series is then : 

January 7th, Diana and a possible reference to " Mac- 
beth " by Mrs. Verrall. 

January 16th, Artemis, Henry, quotations from " Mac- 
beth " and " The Cup " by Mrs. Holland. 

136 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

February 27th, Diana and woods by Mrs. Yerrall. 

March 13th, vague references to Diana and " Macbeth " 
by Mrs. Verrall. 

March 18th, " Cup " given in Mrs. Piper's trance. 

March 19th, Diana first referred to by Mrs. Piper ; ref- 
erence in Mrs. Holland's and Mrs. Verrall's scripts for first 
and only time to Cup. 

April 2d, 4th, and 8th, statements in Mrs. Piper 's trance 
that " Diana " had been given to Mrs. Verrall. 

Now, if the automatists knew — as they probably did — 
that Irving was playing in those two plays, it seems to me 
that we have a very satisfactory explanation for the appear- 
ance of the word Cup, as well as for the combination of 
Diana and Macbeth. 

But, further, the Cup is the pivot of the play, and it 
is expressly stated at the beginning of the play that it was 
taken from a shrine of Artemis. The play also has through- 
out many references to hunting, stags, arrows, etc., which 
sufficiently account for the sylvan tone of Mrs. Verrall's 
script of this time, and for the appearance of the arrows of 
February 11th, 12th, and 17th in Mrs. Piper's, Mrs. Ver- 
rall's, and Miss Verrall's script. Finally, Artemis and Di- 
ana are connected in one passage of the play, explicitly. 
There is no question but that Mrs. Holland had either seen 
or read the play, since she gave direct quotations from it in 
her script. If Mrs. Verrall and Mrs. Piper also were famil- 
iar with it, or even with reviews of it, the whole matter is 
explained. 

One of the most complex and ingeniously worked out 
cross correspondences is that called " Light in West." 
Summed up as briefly as possible, this is as follows : 

March 4th, Mrs. Verrall had in her script references to 
Hercules Furens, his tying to a pillar, and something in 
Euripides that Mr. Verrall had not seen. 

This reminded Mrs. Verrall of a passage in " Human 
Personality ' ' in which there is a quotation from Plotinus, 
12 137 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

and this same passage was the one referred to by the Piper- 
Myers in connection with " autos ouranos akumon." 

March 10th, while writing with the planchette, Miss Ver- 
rall got illusions to ' ' Geryon, ' ' spelled in three ways, and 
" Mefistofiles " spelled in the Italian way. From this Mr. 
Piddington infers that the scribe had in mind both the 
monster killed by Heracles and the one referred to in 
Dante ! 

March 11th, came a reference by Mrs. Verrall to a 
Presence on the eternal hills, and the lonely hills, which is 
supposed to be the emergence of the Wordsworth country 
topic in a script belonging to the ' ' autos ouranos akumon ' ' 
episode. 

March 13th, Mrs. Holland's script had an original verse 
contrasting eastern and western sky, with a quotation from 
a poem of Myers, and a little later his initials. 

March 20th, Mrs. Piper's script said that the words 
" I wandered lonely as a cloud that floats on high o'er 
dale and hill " were said to have been given to Mrs. 
Verrall. 

This introduces " by implication " daffodils and the 
Wordsworth country. 

While mentioning other words given to Mrs. Verrall 
the Myers control also said, ' ' I referred also to a quotation 
of my own in which I said, where did he come from whither 
is he going. ' ' 

March 25th, Mrs. Verrall 's script had various references 
to club and key, east and west, Hercules, shadows. 

Mr. Piddington works out with much detail and many 
quotations that this signifies that Heracles is in some way 
a link between east and west. 

March 27th, Mrs. Holland's script had a quotation from 
Tennyson's " Maud," followed by the words, " Not Maud, 
Sylvia." 

Now, says Mr. Piddington, Sylvia is the name of Myers 's 
daughter, and this is the only place where it is mentioned. 

138 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

Leopold, the oldest son, is referred to equally irrelevantly 
and but once, when a reference to Browning 's ' ' Herakles ' ' 
is made, and Harold, the other son, is similarly referred to 
once in Mrs. Piper 's with a reference to Euripides. ' ' This 
apparently irrelevant affixing . . . was, I consider, done in 
order to show that the subjects of the three scripts formed 
part of one family of ideas, and were meant to be pieced 
together : a clew that was badly needed, since between the 
quotation from Maud and the two allusions to Euripides 
there most certainly did not exist any obvious connec- 
tion."! ! 

April 29th, Mrs. Verrall sat with Mrs. Piper and was 
told by the Myers control that he had succeeded in giving 
her a D in one cross correspondence. She took this to be 
the first letter of Dante, but Myers said that it was not, 
and added that he wrote " lonely wandering cloud. Daf- 
fodils." 

Now, if one goes back over these references, it is evi- 
dent that the connections are so loose that they prove noth- 
ing at all. Mrs. Verrall's script contains no allusions to 
Wordsworth save the barely possible one contained in a 
reference to a Presence in the hills; Mrs. Piper's contains 
none to Hercules and the club and key ; Mrs. Holland 's con- 
tains none to either of these, but only a stanza of poetry 
contrasting eastern and western sky at the end of a win- 
ter's day — certainly a common theme in poetry. All the 
ingenious cross connections seem to me to be purely the cre- 
ation of Mr. Piddington's own mind. 

In answer to a criticism that Myers does not ear-mark 
his cross correspondences in Mrs. Verrall's script, Mr. Pid- 
dington says that there are eleven cases where he does do 
so, as follows: 

1. " Library, my own name and Mrs. Sidgwick's." 
The ear-mark is : " I will give the message elsewhere too 

to day . . wait for their answer. ' ' 

2. " Laurel Wreath." 

139 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

" No more to day. — await the better news that brings 
assurance with a laurel crown." 

3. "Arrow." 

Drawing of three arrows, followed by the words " tria 
convergentia in unum." 

4. " Crossing the Bar." 

' - I think I have got some words from the poem written 
down — if not stars and satellites, another phrase will do as 
well. And may there be no moaning at the bar — my Pilot 
face to face." 

5. " Hercules Furens of Euripides." 

' ' Ask elsewhere for the Bound Hercules. ' ' 

6. "Angel." 

Drawing of an angel, followed by the words " F. W. 
H. M. has sent the message through — at last ! ' ' 

7. "Azure" and "Horizon." 

1 ' We will try to give the message to them. It has come 
first to you. ' ' 

8. " Shadow." 

" Let Piddington know when you get a message about 
shadow. ' ' 

9. "Laus Deo." 

" Laus in aeternum Aeterno Deo," followed by allu- 
sions in Greek to the combination of like parts. 

10. " Fairy." 

1 ' Faery lands forlorn, ' ' followed by the words ' ' I will 
try to get the idea elsewhere conveyed — but it is hard and 
I know I have failed before. ' ' 

11. " Light in the West." 

' ' You will find that you have written a message to Mr. 
Piddington which you did not understand but he did. Tell 
him that." 

In other cases he says the significant word was empha- 
sised either by repetition or capital letters — but these are 
constantly used for any sort of emphasis or clearness, and 
are not peculiar to the cross references. 

140 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

Mrs. Verrall discusses in particular two of the cross 
correspondences. On April 16th Mrs. Holland's script con- 
tained the words " Maurice, Morriss, Mors," and a phrase 
referring to the idea of death. On April 17th, in the wak- 
ing stage of her trance, Mrs. Piper said, " Sanatos, Tan- 
atos, ' ' and on April 23d ' ' Thanatos, ' ' the Greek word for 
death. On April 29th Mrs. Verrall's script had four quo- 
tations, all referring to death. She says, " It can not be 
accident which combines in each case a suggestion of sound 
with the idea of death and makes use of the three different 
languages through the three automatists. ' ' 

Again, on January 23d and 28th, Mrs. Verrall's script 
contained allusions to hope, star, and Browning's " Abt 
Vogler "; on February 3d, Miss Verrall's, to star and 
Browning; on February 11th Mrs. Piper's controls an- 
nounced " Browning, Hope, and star " as a cross cor- 
respondence ; on February 17th Miss Verrall 's script again 
alluded to star and Browning, and on March 6th and after- 
ward the Piper controls claimed that this cross correspond- 
ence was " an answer to the Latin message." 

Now, in " Abt Vogler " there is no reference to hope, 
and this seems to be of no significance, but there are 
two lines containing the word " star," viz., " Not a point 
nor peak but found and fixed its wandering star," and, 
" That out of three sounds he frame, not a fourth 
sound, but a star." Which of these two lines is the one 
meant ? 

Miss Verrall's script contains references to " heav- 
enly harmony, " ' ' mystic three, " ' ' and above it all is the 
star," which, Mrs. Verrall says, shows that the second is 
the one meant. Now this line " is singularly appropriate 
as the subject of a cross correspondence of the particular 
type desired, so that the choice of topic no less than the 
method of conveyance points to an intelligent response to 
the request of the experimenters made in the Latin mes- 
sage, and justifies the claim that it was an answer to the 

141 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

message. It is true that the Piper controls did not suc- 
ceed in translating the Latin message, but they did better! 
They acted upon it, ' ' and this is especially significant since 
in Mrs. Verrall's script of January 23d there appears for 
the first time the sign of a triangle within a circle which 
on January 16th Mr. Piddington had asked the Piper con- 
trol to use whenever he gave a cross correspondence. 

In summarising this long labour to prove the existence 
of cross correspondences which are to prove that the con- 
trol is in truth a real and distinct personality from Mrs. 
Piper's subconsciousness, I find it somewhat difficult to do 
justice both to Mr. Piddington 's fairmindedness in publish- 
ing all the data at hand, and at the same time to the obvi- 
ous defects of the work. 

1. First of all, when cross correspondences were to be 
the chief focus of interest during all these sittings, why 
did the Society allow two of the other mediums who were 
to be concerned in these correspondences, Mrs. and Miss 
Verrall, to have frequent sittings with Mrs. Piper? I am 
told by Mrs. Piper herself that she did not know that they 
were having these sittings until they were through, since 
they did not come into the room until after she entered the 
trance and left before she emerged from it, and presum- 
ably those having the matter in charge believed that thus 
they excluded the conscious giving of information. I also 
understand that Mrs. Piper did not see the Verralls during 
her stay while in her waking state. 

But of what avail was all this care when the main thing 
was to make it impossible for the Piper control to get infor- 
mation ? In these sittings we find the Piper control asking 
Mrs. Verrall questions about her automatic writing, whether 
she has got this or that message, etc. ; and knowing what 
we do about the control we may be sure that he was much 
on the alert for any indications of things in which he was 
interested. Of course Mrs. Verrall tried not to betray 
these, but can any student of the subconscious mind pos- 

142 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

sibly assume that she did not betray her interests in a 
thousand and one involuntary ways? 

Those having charge of the matter could not well have 
done anything more detrimental for the value of cross corre- 
spondences than to allow these sittings. This is emphasised 
by the statement which they themselves make without see- 
ing its significance, viz., that Mrs. Piper is rarely the first 
to give the cross correspondence but is usually the second 
and sometimes the third. That is, her control knew that 
the thing most in mind was cross correspondences, and was 
always on the alert to detect signs of special interest in the 
disconnected words which he threw out both in the trance 
and the waking stage. We have plenty of cases where he 
made wrong inferences, and we should not be surprised 
that sometimes he made correct ones when we consider 
that nearly every one of his sitters was a believer in Spirit- 
ism, and had been a friend of the living Myers, and so 
could not possibly be on the alert to prevent himself from 
betraying knowledge as an unbeliever and stranger would 
have been. 

I feel justified, therefore, in throwing out at one stroke 
every cross correspondence between Mrs. Piper and Mrs. 
and Miss Yerrall that occurred after Mrs. and Miss Verrall 
began to have sittings; and of course no one can consider 
the correspondences between the mother and daughter as 
having any scientific value to prove spirit communication, 
interesting though they doubtless are as showing the in- 
voluntary ways in which we betray what is in our own 
minds and assimilate what is in others'. 

But if we eliminate all these, we have left no cross cor- 
respondences between the Verralls and Mrs. Piper! 

Now as to Mrs. Holland and Mrs. Piper. There were 
no cross correspondences in Mrs. Holland's script with the 
Latin message, with " Hope, star, and Browning," nor 
with " autos ouranos akumon," which are considered by 
far the most significant references of all. 

143 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Those with her are: St. Paul, Francis and Ignatius, 
steeple, cup, Diana, Euripides, spirit and angel, light in 
West, azure and horizon, thanatos. "We have already dis- 
cussed all of these save the last two, and they are not dif- 
ferent in type from the others. Here, again, is it reasonable 
on the basis of such similarities to argue to the momentous 
fact of spirit communication? 

2. In the second place, the similarities which do exist 
are no more numerous and close than can be found by 
comparing the record of the thoughts of any two or three 
persons of even quite different education. 

To prove this I carried out an experiment under far 
more rigid conditions than those of the cross correspond- 
ences. My subjects were three women, two of whom had 
once been introduced two years previous to the experiment 
but had never met since, and the third of whom was un- 
known to both the others. The three had no common ac- 
quaintance save myself, and I had never talked of them to 
each other. One of the three was a graduate of a woman 's 
college, widely travelled, and actively engaged in philan- 
thropic and educational work. The second had no college 
training, but an art education, was active in social and 
church life, and unusually interested in literature. The 
third is a graduate of a coeducational institution, has a 
Ph.D., and devotes practically all her time to experimental 
psychology. 

Each subject was to take fifteen minutes of each day 
in writing out as many of her thoughts as she could catch. 
She was to let her mind be as passive as possible and catch 
as many of the fugitive thoughts as she could. This was 
to be continued one week. 

When I began to compare the similarities I soon saw 
that it would take a larger volume than Mr. Piddington's 
if I were to elaborate the correspondences after his inimi- 
table style, and so here I will only take those of one day. 
Note that I compare only the writing of the same day, 

144 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

and do not feel free to extend my time over weeks and 
months as he does. 

I give first the record of each subject : 

A. B. 

I am a little chilly. Visual image of streets as I saw them 
to-night, then of dining table at supper as I tell about it. I 
wonder what sort of girl — is. Wonder if I'll receive a 
package by mail to-morrow. Wonder if mamma or A. will 
send me a birthday present. . . . Wish I were not such a poke 
about things I hate to do. Image of book in which I recorded 
my name to take three volumes from psychological laboratory. 

. .. .Memory images from Mr. W.'s experiment Image of 

falling stars, then of hill to the west and a picnic a week ago. 
...I'm disgusted here. Nothing satisfies me.... Image of 
soft green robe worn by friend. Image of friend. Memory 
of various things which happened with — last summer. Visual 
imagery of lake and scenes of last trip. 

C. E. 

Miss T.'s face comes to me, fresh coloured, green-gray suit 
accompanying face picture. I see her very plainly, now she is 
speaking, smiling. I am sorry to have left her rather abruptly 
this a.m. How damp and muddy under foot it was. I clam- 
bered into a car. Dr. — told me she read a great deal of 
fiction to take her mind from her work. She can almost always 
sleep, usually at will. I asked why she did not read something 
really interesting. That would also take her mind from her 
work and give a pleasant thought companionship in her lonely 
hours. Which expression makes me smile inwardly as I recall 
Mrs. L., who said that of confirmation. I see her now and hear 
her voice, slow and matter of fact — and what awful things she 
would say — you were never at ease unless you were alone or 
knew your company — her relation of disorders and diseases in 
that voice on the way home from church. Awful! And she 
was contemplating matrimony again — was it only the second 
time or was it the third venture, when she died suddenly. I 
touched her hand helping to make her nice for the funeral, 

145 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

and how cold and startling it was. Her dear old father — How 
fond I was of that dear old true hearted Englishman from the 
Lorna Doone country. I really think I never had a truer 
friend. Mr. S. used to say so and call him my devoted ad- 
mirer 

J. K. 

One difficulty about getting a passive mind seems to be that 
it is hard to make a mind passive at the same time that one 
is actively observing its processes actively formulating those 
words down on paper. Of course one ought to make the proc- 
esses automatic and do the active part as reflexly as possible. 
I think this could be cultivated. How far this artificial cul- 
tivation would alter the normal processes I do not know. It 
seems a good deal like cultivating the day dreaming we were 
warned against in early life, as a squandering of time and 
encouraging of mental weakness. Perhaps if I just think 
nouns or objects in a detached way it may bring the result. 
The trouble is everything suggests relations and ramifications. 
Nothing in one's mind really is detached and loose in adult 
life. It is bound by a thousand fine ties of association into 
intricate connections. House, spoon, cat, table, rug, floor, lamp, 
door, woods, dreams, Keats, tempests, cars, skies, ponds, toys, 
raffia, garden, kiosk, tuberculosis, lamp, children, lunch, books, 
technology, conceit, symphony, sleep, rest, death, fire, gymna- 
sium, college. 

But faster than any pencil can write them down at least two 
thirds of these nouns have rayed out electric flashes of other 
words, pictures, arguments, stories, literature. The fact is, our 
modern minds are too full, too distracted, too strenuous, to 
slip off in little boats of idle dreams along one slender current 
of thought. They dart a thousand ways like dragon-flies over 
a pool. I wish I were there in the forest throwing a line for 
trout, just the zip of my reel for sound in a still world. 

The trolley rushes by in a torrent of uproar, the yelp and 
shriek of automobiles spoils my forest, spoils my string of 
nouns. Perhaps the noise of the outer world is partly to blame 
for my intractable mind that won't get passive and float down 
a stream of subconscious suggestion. 

146 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

Note now the many coincidences: 

(1) The reference by A. B. to psychological laboratory 
and experiment; by J. K. to experimenting to make the 
mind automatic; and by C. E. to Miss T., who is chiefly 
associated in her thoughts with psychology. 

(2) A. B. refers to the streets as she saw them that 
night; C. E. to the damp, wet streets; and J. K. to the 
noise of the streets, trolley, etc. Both J. K. and C. E. refer 
to the car or trolley. 

(3) Stars, hill, picnic, and lake in A. B.'s give a sylvan 
setting, which is carried out by J. K. in the thought of 
herself fishing for trout in the forest, and by C. E. in her 
reference to the Lorna Doone country, which " by impli- 
cation ' ' always brings up the thought of the deep pool and 
fishing described in the story. 

(4) Mr. W.'s experiment is on music, as referred to by 
A. B., and J. K. suddenly ejaculates, " Concert, sym- 
phony ! ' ' 

(5) A. B. refers to trance, which is closely connected 
in its characteristics to sleep, relaxation, day dreaming, 
etc., as mentioned both by J. K. and C. E. 

(6) Death is emphasised by C. E., and also emerges in 
J. K.'s mind. 

(7) A delicate green is referred to both by A. B. and 
C. E., while it is brought in "by implication " in J. K.'s 
picture of the forest. 

But more than these superficial coincidences is the un- 
derlying idea of unity or interdependence in all three. In 
C. E. this is introduced in the pictures of matrimony, 
companionship, and friendship, which fill nearly all her 
space. It appears in J. K. in her discussion on the rela- 
tions between ideas, and by contrast in A. B.'s irritation 
over her unsettled, disjointed life at that time. 

If these three ladies were mediums, and I Mr. Pidding- 
ton, I should at once infer that some one control had been 
actively at work striving to impress upon all three, unknown 

147 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

to each, the idea of interdependence or association, which is 
so essential if those " on this side of the veil " are to co- 
operate with those on the other side! 

But since I am not Mr. Piddington, these cases seem to 
me to show very nicely how much greater our community 
of thought is than we usually realise. 

3. In the third place, it seems to me that one must crit- 
icise the tortuous explanations and far-fetched associations 
which Mr. Piddington seems to consider the best proof that 
the control is a distinct personality. Of course he is ham- 
pered at every step by the fact that he believes in telepathy, 
and must, therefore, in framing an experiment, so do it 
as to exclude the possibility of any possible thought trans- 
ference. How difficult this is the reader will not appreci- 
ate until he remembers that as this theory has been ex- 
tended, any living person may transfer to any other living 
person any thought that exists either in his conscious or 
his subconscious mind. Granted this, we can easily enough 
see that when a cross correspondence is so obscure that it 
has no meaning for anybody concerned in giving it, but 
only for the interpreter who compares the various scripts, 
it will be the best sort of message. Let us for the minute 
grant this, and see whether even then the conditions are 
good, as set by Mr. Piddington. 

First of all, as to time conditions. Mr. Piddington 
seems to set no limits here. Any common reference in 
any of the four scripts coming on any date between Novem- 
ber 15th and June 2d may be a cross correspondence. 
But this is nothing less than absurd, from the standpoint of 
the psychologist, and especially from the standpoint of the 
student of the subconscious. It is not too much to say that 
given such an interval we could hardly find any two per- 
sons of the same nationality, or even of the same race, who 
would not have some such similarities. 

Second, as to the mediums. Mr. Piddington says that 
even when the control says he will give a certain word to 

148 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

one medium, and it does not appear with that medium but 
does with one of the others, it is a cross correspondence. 
But again this is unreasonable, and gives the control an 
unfair advantage, allowing a far wider range of associa- 
tions than would otherwise come in. 

Thirdly, throughout this whole work the Myers control 
seems to have descended nearly, if not quite, to the Phinuit 
level. When he succeeds, he brags ; when he fails, he bul- 
lies Rector, evades, etc., quite in Phinuit 's style. He never 
admits ignorance, but always blames conditions, " the 
light, ' ' etc., in the most inconsistent ways. Indeed, his only 
test of whether conditions are right is whether he succeeds 
in telling the sitter what he wants to know. He never 
makes any statement of what conditions per se are con- 
ducive to success. 

We get an interesting side light on this matter in some 
remarks made by Mrs. Sidgwick (pp. 439-40) apropos of 
a test she gave the Myers control. She thinks that the con- 
trol showed more knowledge of the test than could be attrib- 
uted to chance, but that some people might say that he 
obtained it from telepathy, and that Myers's spirit was 
not truly present. She says: " The main considerations 
are on the one side that the trance personality itself as- 
sumes that the information came from the dead ; and on the 
other that it did not come at all except in the presence of 
a living person who possessed it, and then more in accord- 
ance with that person's views than with Mr. Myers's. It 
may perhaps be urged that I, the living person, had not 
previously shown any power as a telepathic agent. But 
this does not count for much, for I had not previously suc- 
ceeded in any way as a sitter with Mrs. Piper. My sittings 
with her when she was in England before were a complete 
failure. Some new condition must therefore have been in- 
troduced in the present case, and there is no more difficulty 
in supposing this to be the breaking down of some barrier 
between my mind and Mrs. Piper's, which makes telepathy 

149 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

now possible, than in supposing any other change in the 
psychical relations between us." 

Now, between these two visits of Mrs. Piper, Mrs. Sidg- 
wick had apparently been gradually tending more to the 
spiritistic hypothesis, and Dr. Sidgwick had died. She did 
not have any sittings alone until March 20th, and before 
that date but two, with Mr. Piddington. By this time Mrs. 
Verrall's series was complete, and the control had enough 
information to go on successfully in spite of the fact that 
Mrs. Sidgwick seems to be far more non-committal than 
any of the other sitters. Mrs. Piper herself has referred 
to Mrs. Sidgwick as being very intellectual and very hard 
to convince. In short, if we were to put it somewhat bru- 
tally, the control finds Mrs. Sidgwick harder to " pump " 
than most of the others are, but in this series she is less on 
her guard than she was twenty years ago, and, on the other 
hand, the control has more confidence in himself now than 
he had then. These facts surely account for the " breaking 
down of the barrier " to which Mrs. Sidgwick refers. 

These, with a few given by Hyslop, conclude the cross 
correspondences published up to date. 1 When we consider 
the looseness of the conditions set by the investigators, they 
seem scarcely worth serious consideration, and would not 
be save that through the public press grossly exaggerated 
accounts have appeared of their coincidence both in time 
and meaning. 

Let us summarise briefly what they are: Out of about 
120 cross correspondences in the Piper sittings the investi- 
gators themselves consider twenty-three correct. Of this 
number all but one of the references were chosen by the 
controls, and in most cases no warning was given that they 
were cross correspondences. The scripts had to be gone 
over repeatedly and searched for hidden meanings before 
the correspondences could be discovered, even with the best 

1 But see Appendix. 
150 



CROSS CORRESPONDENCES WITH MRS. PIPER 

will in the world to discover them on the part of the inves- 
tigators. In order to establish them further the investi- 
gators could not accept the statements of the controls that 
they gave the reference to some particular medium, but dis- 
regarded these assertions and took any reference from any 
of the four mediums concerned, at any time within six 
months, no matter how vague or common the reference. 
This was done with scarcely any attempt to note occur- 
rences, newspaper accounts, literature, current topics, etc., 
which might have brought up that reference to the various 
mediums, and — worst of all — no attempt is made to cor- 
relate the sittings of Mrs. and Miss Verrall with Mrs. 
Piper* with the cross correspondences coming after those 
sittings. 

A piece of work of this character has no claim to serious 
consideration, and ultimately must injure the Society which 
approves it. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE LATIN MESSAGE 

Shortly after Mrs. Piper went to England, in 1906, the 
experimenters drew up a message in Latin addressed to the 
Myers control. It was first written in English, and then 
translated into Latin by Dr. Verrall, a special point being 
made of avoiding words and phrases that might be known 
to some one but slightly acquainted with Latin. This, of 
course, was to make it impossible for the normal Mrs. Piper 
to understand it. 

(a) Original draft in English: 

We are aware of the scheme of cross correspondences, which 
you are transmitting through various mediums, and we hope 
that you will go on with them. 

Try also to give to A and B two different messages, between 
which no connection is discernible. Then as soon as possible 
give to C a third message which will reveal the hidden con- 
nection. 

(b) Latin rendering: 

Diversis internuntiis quod invicem inter se respondentia 
jamdudum committis, id nee fallit nos consilium, et vehe- 
menter probamus. 

Unum accesserit gratissimum nobis, si, cum duobus quibus- 
dam ea tradideris, inter quae nullus appareat nexus, postea 
quam primum rem per tertium aliquem ita perficias, ut latens 
illud in prioribus explicetur. 

(c) Literal translation into English: 

As to the fact that for some long time past you have been 
entrusting to different intermediaries things which correspond 
mutually between themselves, we have observed your design 
and we cordially approve it. 

152 



THE LATIN MESSAGE 

One thing besides this most agreeable to us will have hap- 
pened if, when you shall have delivered to two particular per- 
sons things between which no connection is apparent, afterward 
as soon as possible through some third person you so complete 
the matter that that which was latent in the first two may be 
revealed. 



This experiment extended from December 17, 1906, to 
June 2, 1907. On the former date Mr. Piddington broached 
the subject to Rector and gave the first phrase, through 
" committis," pronouncing each syllable and spelling it, 
while the hand wrote it down with the punctuation. The 
dictation was continued through four more sittings, and 
completed for the first time on January 2d. 

At this time Rector said that Hodgson was helping 
Myers, and Myers said that he would gladly translate the 
message, to which Mr. Piddington replied that he did not 
want a translation, but a message which would show that 
the Latin had been understood. 

January 2d, when the message was completed, on com- 
ing out of the trance Mrs. Piper said, " United we stand, 
divided we fall." This came just after a sentence which 
Mr. Piddington says the Myers control must have given, 
and is therefore attributed to him, and interpreted as a 
reference to the second paragraph, as showing a knowledge 
of its meaning. 

January 14th, 15th, and 16th there were only references 
to it, and on the last date Myers said that Piddington must 
not be impatient for an answer. 

January 23d, the situation was complicated by the 
Myers control being asked which of Horace's Odes had en- 
tered deeply into his inner life, and immediately after this 
he called for a repetition of the first and second sentences 
of the message. At this time also Myers said for the first 
time that he believed he could give an answer to the 
message. 

13 153 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

At this point we must diverge for an instant to note 
that from December 18th to January 30th most of the sit- 
tings with Mrs. Piper were held by either Mrs. or Miss Ver- 
rall, Mr. Piddington having only January 2d, 16th, 23d, 
and 28th to himself, but being present at all the others as 
manager. 

January 23d and 28th, Mrs. Verrall wrote two scripts 
connected with each other, of which Mrs. Piper's script 
reproduced the main points on February 17th in its ref- 
erences to hope, star, and Browning. Mrs. Verrall's script 
of January 23d has anagrams on rats, star, etc., seam, same ; 
skeat takes Kate's skates; January 28th come references 
to aster, the Greek " teras," meaning a sign or wonder, 
' ' Abt Vogler ' ' and a misquotation from it. In Miss Ver- 
rall 's script of February 3d are references to a crescent 
moon and star and bird ; and February 17th a drawing of a 
star, and references to diapason, harmony, and mystic 
three. 

The especial reference in Mrs. Verrall's script, " that 
out of three sounds he make, not a fourth sound but a 
star," is considered a very apt description of a cross cor- 
respondence with the three automatists, but as Mr. Pid- 
dington himself indicates, it is quite possible that Mrs. Ver- 
rall 's subconscious mind worked this out. I would add fur- 
ther that in the series of sittings with Mrs. Piper, which 
was nearly at an end by January 23d, her mind, her daugh- 
ter 's, and Mrs. Piper's had been so attuned that the later 
references in Mrs. Piper's script to hope, star, and Brown- 
ing are simply a working over of some common material 
gathered during those sittings. Furthermore, Mr. Pid- 
dington says frankly that in the period between Febru- 
ary 11th and February 19th he had become possessed by 
the idea that the reference by the Piper-Myers on Febru- 
ary 11th to hope, star, and Browning was an attempt to 
give an answer to the Latin message, and it is therefore 
impossible to say what involuntary and unconscious hints 

154 



THE LATIN MESSAGE 

he may have given of this to the Piper-Myers. He was 
closely on the watch to catch such connections, as he him- 
self says. 

February 19th part of the message was repeated again 
to Myers, and February 20th came the first attempt to 
translate it, as follows : ' ' The idea I got was that I should 
be a Messenger and pass on to you the same intelligent UD 
now in my present life- ... It is with reference to my . . my 
being a messenger. . and my handing through to you on 
your side coherent and — messages. ' ' 

The divergence between this and the message is evident. 
There is no reference here to cross references unless we 
force the interpretation. 

We should also note here Mrs. Piper's knowledge of 
Browning. 

May 7th, Mrs. Sidgwick made inquiries as to whether 
Mrs. Piper had ever read any of Browning, and Mrs. Piper 
told her that ' ' probably ' ' she had read some, and that one 
of her daughters had several volumes of his poems and 
was fond of them. May 26th, Miss Johnson made inquiries 
from the lady who lived with Mrs. Piper while she was in 
London, and found that Mrs. Piper had, probably three or 
four weeks before, been looking over one of the volumes. 
But we are not told whether it contained " Abt Vogler," 
" Evelyn Hope," " My Star," " La Saisiaz," and " Rabbi 
Ben Ezra. ' ' These, however, are all poems which are given 
in most of the popular editions of Browning, and, further- 
more, Sir Oliver found that the daughters had committed 
parts of " Abt Vogier " to memory. 

Now, since Mrs. Piper had these volumes of Browning 
in her possession all the time she was in England, it seems 
altogether likely that she read parts of them every now and 
then, and not merely on the one occasion that Dr. Reid 
happened to remember. Her familiarity with these poems 
is therefore explained. 

On February 25th parts of the Latin were again re- 
155 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

peated, and also on February 26th and on February 27th 
another attempt at translation was made, which, sum- 
marised, is thus : ' ' Although you as intermediary have long 
since united mutually ideas. You have or do not reply 
or respond sufficiently to our questions as to convince us of 
your existence etc. Is it not UD % ' ' . . But here, too, the 
point is missed, since the message expresses no doubt of 
Myers's existence, but only cordial approval of his cross- 
reference scheme. 

Before this complete attempt came, Myers had translated 
it phrase by phrase and at one point said, ■ ' Now I believe 
that since you sent this message to me I have sufficiently 
replied to your various questions to convince the ordinary 
scientific mind that I am at least a fragment of the once 
incarnate individual whom you called Myers. Is it not so ? ' ' 

A little later Mr. Piddington asked him in what mes- 
sages this reply was given, and he said that it was in the 
messages reported through Mrs. Piper and Mrs. Verrall. 
On being pressed for some important point from these mes- 
sages, he said that it was in those, where he referred to ' ' the 
poems," " halceon days," " evangelical " and " syringa 
shrub." Asked what poems, he said his, and Browning's, 
and Horace. 

None of these, be it noted, refer to the thing Piddington 
wanted, namely, hope, star, and " Abt Vogler." 

But later in the same sitting Mr. Piddington said to 
Myers : 

" (I want to say that you have, I believe, given an 
answer worthy of your intelligence — not to day, I mean, 
but some time back — but the interpretation must not be 
mine. You must explain your answer at this light.) 

" Yes. 

" (You could do it in two words.) 

"Yes. I UD. 

" (Well?) 

" Hope. Star. 

156 



THE LATIN MESSAGE 

" (Well? Yes?) 

" Browning. 

" (Exactly. It couldn't be better.) 

" That is my answer. 

" (Now, Myers, I can't thank you enough. That is 
what I have been waiting for.) " 

Myers then showed a tendency to try the Latin mes- 
sage again, but was rather discouraged by Mr. Piddington, 
who soon after told him that he would like one more point 
in his answer, to which Myers wrote : 

1 ' My Star, ' ' and then made various attempts, ' ' E Y E 
E YL E YEL, ' ' at which point he was stopped by Mr. Pid- 
dington because the light was growing weak. 

To the person who is not looking for spiritistic inter- 
vention, this answer seems explicable from a naturalistic 
point of view. As we have already noted it is probable 
that in the series of sittings with Mrs. Yerrall the common 
material of hope, star, Browning, and ' ' Abt Yogler ' ' had 
been unconsciously given and emphasised by Mrs. Yerrall 
to Mis. Piper's control, and that after Mr. Piddington had 
formed his theory he had unconsciously betrayed to the 
control that all references to Browning were especially 
interesting to him, so that when, on February 27th, he told 
the control that he had already given an intelligent answer, 
but he wanted him himself to indicate what it was, the 
control would revert to the one in which Mr. Piddington 
had shown the most interest before, which would naturally 
impress itself most upon the control when given, owing to 
the control's great suggestibility. In this he was aided by 
Mr. Piddington 's remark that two words would give the 
answer. That he did not at all understand why " hope, 
star and Browning " was an answer to the Latin message 
seems to be shown by the reference immediately afterward 
to " My Star " and " Evel. " which may have been the 
beginning of " Evelyn Hope." 

On March 6th the Pelham control appeared and asked 
157 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Mr. Piddington if he had got what he wanted about the 
Latin message. Mr. Piddington replied : 

" (I think the answer is clear, but I want — ) 

" Did he [i. e. Myers.] tell you about My Star? " 

Pelham then goes on to say that this and " Evelyn 
Hope " were tests with Mrs. Verrall. 

Pelham also translated the Latin message thus : ' ' Al- 
though you have for some time been uniting (or assimilat- 
ing) different ideas you fail to convince the world or me of 
your independent existence. Now if you can give a clear 
message through Mrs. Verrall and reproduce it here it will 
do more to convince. . or it will, .greatly help to convince 
the world of your continued existence." " This was the 
idea as I received it," says Pelham. " You must give 
allowances, for its being made comprehensible here. . to 
you. ' ' 

Mr. Piddington then explains at considerable length 
that to make the answer perfectly complete and satis- 
factory one more point must be brought out, and that 
this same point has already been very clearly made by 
Myers himself through Mrs. Verrall, but not through Mrs. 
Piper. 

Pelham said that he would explain the situation to 
Myers, i. e., would tell him that he must bring out the same 
point through Mrs. Piper as he already had through Mrs. 
Verrall, and presently Myers himself appeared and after 
one sentence Rector tries to explain in these words: " I 
UD. it was a cross correspondence message and to her 
(i. e. Mrs. Verrall.) I gave the same words that I brought 
out here, as the poem was one I knew him (presumably 
Myers) to give me." 

This was not clear and Myers again appears and says, 
" I told Rector to tell you that I UD and replied saying 
it was the poem in which Hope and Star came out." 

On March 13th Myers says, " I UD your reference to 
the poem in your Latin message to me which led me to 

158 



THE LATIN MESSAGE 

refer to Browning . . . , " showing again that he did not 
understand why the reference to Hope, star, and Brown- 
ing was considered an answer, and that he thought the 
Latin contained a reference to the poem. 

A little later Mr. Piddington begins, " The Latin Mes- 
sage does not refer — " and the hand quickly corrects it- 
self, saying, " not exactly to a poem I know, but it sug- 
gested a poem to my mind. Hence BHS etc. ' ' 

Later in. the same sitting Mr. Piddington once more ex- 
plains to the Myers control that Hope, Star, and Brown- 
ing are an excellent answer to the message, but that he has 
not yet told through Mrs. Piper why they are. Then, in 
answer to questions from Myers, Mr. Piddington tells him 
that a particular poem and a particular passage in that 
poem give the answer, and Myers already knows that one 
of Browning's poems with a reference to hope and star is 
wanted. 

At this point Mrs. Sidgwick took charge of the sittings. 

Myers had now been well coached in his cues, so that 
on April 2d he started out with various references to 
Browning, hope, stars, but gave nothing more. April 2d, 
Mrs. Sidgwick read him this question: 

" Mr. Piddington says you promised to try to tell us 
what particular poem of Browning's you meant to refer 
to by the words ' Browning, Hope and Star.' " 

To this Myers replies as usual that he will be glad to 
think it over and answer later. April 8th, Myers brings up 
the subject again, and says that the poem he had in mind 
is the one about the stars, the lonely, lonely wandering 
stars, and the message made him think of it because it re- 
minded him of his interest in " light " and his desire to 
prove the survival of bodily death. Then he says that the 
poem began with P and Sai, and then comes much maun- 
dering about his making a circle, star, etc. 

April 10th and 15th come casual or confused refer- 
ences, and April 17th more references to lonely, also 

159 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 



" Siazies, Siacriez," and finally Mrs. Sidgwick suggests 
lt La Saisiaz," which the hand accepts. 

Then come imperfect efforts to reproduce parts of the 
Latin message, and a little later Myers clearly and explic- 
itly connects hope and star with " La Saisiaz " — not with 
" Abt Vogler." 

In answer to this connection Mrs. Sidgwick made a re- • 
mark as to which she says, " It now seems to me obvious 
that I meant I did not know that Hope and Star referred 
to La Saisiaz, ' ' and Myers goes on to say that the passage 
he meant contained three words and horizon was the most 
important one of them. 

A little later Mrs. Sidgwick asked, * ' Did you, when you 
spoke a little while ago, mean to say you had given me the 
name of the poem in which Hope and Star come? " and 
she notes that she thinks she mentioned ' ' La Saisiaz ' ' here. 
But the control had been warned by the above remark, 
and answered, ' ' No, I have not been able to get it through, 
but I do hope to do so. ' ' 

April 24th, he tried another tack, giving reminiscences 
from ' ' Rabbi Ben Ezra, ' ' but as Mrs. Sidgwick said she did 
not remember that they appeared in Mrs. Verrall's script 
the control was once more corrected, and started over again 
by drawing a star, and then writing " Vol " and a little 
below ' ' gar. ' ' Of course Mrs. Sidgwick at once thought of 
' ' Vogler, ' ' and told him that she thought she saw what he 
meant. Thus encouraged, the hand continued trying, pro- 
ducing after a little " AB," and below it " Volugevar," 
to which Mrs. Sidgwick responded, " You're very nearly 
got it." Then a little lower he finally got " Volugur," 
and below it " ABT," to which Mrs. Sidgwick said that 
she was quite satisfied. A little later the hand asked how 
she pronounced ' ' Abt, ' ' and she spoke it ; then it wrote 
" VO," and inquired, and she finished it, " Vogler." 

Now, even if it were possible for one not to see that 
this came entirely through the ingenious guessing of the 

160 



THE LATIN MESSAGE 

control, he went on to show that he still did not understand 
what passage answered the Latin message, by saying, ' ' Let 
me first remind you how deeply I was affected by the 
message and how the uncertainty of Abt gave me the words 
I wrote and the . . . faith which he held gave my 
brought to my memory the experience I have had myself 
sufficiently clear for me to quote it to you." 

Kector then said that he had left out some words, and 
Myers told Mrs. Sidgwick to look up the passage about 
Abt's faith, and said, "I am trying to explain to you 
his doubts and fears, then his acceptance of God and faith 
in Him." 

A little later Mrs. Sidgwick asked : 

" I should like you, Mr. Myers, to say exactly why that 
poem was so appropriate as an answer to the Latin Mes- 
sage," to which he replied: 

" I chose that because of the appropriate conditions 
mentioned in it which applied to my own life, and nothing 
I could think of so completely answered it to my mind as 
those special words. ' ' 

Now the Latin message, of course, did not refer to any 
particular events in Myers's life, and only by torturing 
this passage far out of its evident meaning could it be made 
to show anything but his ignorance of the message. 

May 1st — two sittings having intervened, at which Mrs. 
Verrall and Miss Johnson were sitters, and at approxi- 
mately the time when Dr. Reid is certain that Mrs. Piper 
had had a volume of Browning to read — at another sitting 
with Mrs. Sidgwick the Myers control again reverted to 
the poem, and after various phrases reminiscent of " Abt 
Vogler, ' ' Mrs. Sidgwick said, ' ' It is about Abt Vogler he is 
telling me, is it not 1 ' ' 

May 6th, after Myers had said that he had already really 
answered the message, Mrs. Sidgwick replied, ' ' But in Abt 
Vogler there is a particular line which specially answers 
the Latin Message. The Latin Message, as you know, re- 

161 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

fers to cross correspondences, but also to something more, 
and there is a line in Abt Yogler which we think you had 
in mind as describing that something more. It would be 
very good if you could give it here. ' ' 

Myers reiterated, " line, poem and Abt Yogler," to be 
sure he understood the task she had set, and said, " I re- 
member the message as referring to my giving proofs of 
survival of bodily death by or through CC (cross corre- 
spondence messages )." 

" Yes, in a particular way" replied Mrs. Sidgwick. 

Thus put on his guard Myers began his usual processes 
of fishing, saying, ' ' I could not help thinking of Tennyson 
in one of the inquiries and Browning in the other.' ' 

This met hearty approval, and he went on to refer to 
music, and told her repeatedly that she must patch things 
together so they would make sense. 

May 7th came the first plain reference to the desired 
line, at the very beginning of the sitting. Myers asked, 
" If the fourth is a star, what would the third be? " 
' ' Fourth ' ' and ' ' star ' ' were reiterated in various connec- 
tions, and then came " framed, passion, to sky," evidently 
reminiscences of the line " As the earth had done her best 
in my passion to scale the sky. ' ' 

Then Mrs. Sidgwick said, " If you are trying to give 
me the line in Abt Yogler which I asked for, you need not 
trouble further/' and Myers replied: 

1 ' That is it. I promised to complete it this day. 

11 (Yes, it is all right. I wanted to know if you were 
thinking of this line when you quoted Abt Yogler as an 
answer.) 

" Oh yes. that is all I am thinking about 

" (Yes, I think I understand it quite sufficiently.) 

' ' Passion is the chief word . . " 

And a little below, Mrs. Sidgwick said : 

" (But the line / wanted was the one about the star.) 

" Yes, I know, but. . . " replied the control, of course 
162 



THE LATIN MESSAGE 

getting out of his mistake as gracefully as possible, and 
rambling on about the star. 

There can be no doubt at all that the control had no 
understanding of what was wanted, for even when his 
choices from " Abt Vogler " were narrowed to the desired 
line and one other, he took the wrong one, and showed un- 
mistakably that he misunderstood by saying that passion 
was the chief word. 

May 27th, when Sir Oliver Lodge was the sitter, came 
another attempt to translate the Latin, thus: " You have 
long since been trying to assimilate ideas, but I wish you to 
give through Mrs. Verrall proof such proof of the survival 
of bodily death in such a way as to make in such a prove 
conclusively conclusively the survival of bodily death." 

Then came various Latin words from the message, and 
Myers said : ' ' From the last sentence I got instead of a 
fourth sound came a star. It was the last sentence in Latin 
which suggested it to my mind." Evidently, in the inter- 
val from May 8th to 27th, the subconscious mind had put 
together the oft-repeated words from various sittings that 
the last sentence contained something about particular kinds 
of correspondences, with Mrs. Sidgwick's information that 
this line was the one desired. And by June 2d the control 
had worked this out sufficiently to explain it to Sir Oliver, 
when he asked Myers to tell him more about the Latin 
message, thus: 

" Oh yes, he [Piddington] said also if you will give me 
a message, not a message really but a sign of some kind 
through the lights corresponding message which I cannot 
mistake I shall consider it the greatest proof of your sur- 
vival of bodily death. Hence my reason for drawing a 
star. I believe I have given you a comparatively full or 
complete reply. ' ' The message in Latin was this : ' ' For a 
long time you have been assimilating ideas one with another 
through different lights, but what is most important of all 
if to prove the survival of bodily death is for you to give 

163 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

in a a certain way a sign long But what I want but what 
we want is for you to give us proof in such a way as to 
make your proof conclusive. . 

" I wish you would follow me now for a moment. 

" (Quite right.) 

" Remember when Piddington gave me his message the 
special point in it was for me to give definite proof through 
both lights. The first thought I had was to repeat a few 
words or lines of Browning's poem, but in order to make 
it still more definite I registered a star and the lines which 
I quoted to you before . . . were the most appropriate I 
could find. I believe you will understand this to be conclu- 
sive that I fully understand and have fairly well translated 
his message. " 

Thus ended the attempt to translate the Latin message. 
How far this attempt shows that the control is a classical 
scholar, as Myers was, readers are, I think, in a fair posi- 
tion to judge for themselves. To me there seems to be 
nothing whatever either in the translation of the Latin or in 
the reference to the line from ' ' Abt Vogler " as an answer 
to it, that is not clearly explicable on the assumption 
that the control fished, guessed, and inferred, getting his 
data from Mrs. Piper's own knowledge, from his sitters, 
and especially from Mrs. and Miss Verrall. I can see no 
evidence whatever of any supernormal knowledge, either 
from the other world or, through telepathy, from this. Mr. 
Piddington himself admits (p. 409) that in some cases Mrs. 
Piper's own memory supplied what the control wrote, and 
that he gave some entirely wrong guesses to the problem. 
Why he does not carry through the possibilities involved 
in this admission it is hard to see, for he quotes the facts 
referred to previously, that Mrs. Piper had on hand some 
of Browning's poems and had been reading them more or 
less, and yet he says that the control displayed greater 
knowledge of Browning than he thinks Mrs. Piper has. 
He also says (p. 408) that the control told, " without any 

164 



THE LATIN MESSAGE 

beating about the bush, ' ' what line in ' ' Abt Vogler ' ' would 
be an answer to the Latin message, and yet we have seen 
very clearly that as a matter of fact the control did not tell 
at all, but that Mrs. Sidgwick told the control. Such an 
error seems to me too grave to be passed without comment, 
for it gives a feeling of confidence in the control's knowl- 
edge that is quite unwarranted by the facts of the case. 



CHAPTER X 
SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: FIRST SITTING 

In the following chapters is given an account of the 
sittings which Dr. G. Stanley Hall and myself had with 
Mrs. Piper in the spring of 1909. Dr. Hall was the inter- 
locutor and myself the note-taker. Mr. G. B. Dorr was 
present at the first ones, but after we learned how to man- 
age conditions he no longer came. 

No attempt was made to get the exact words of the 
sitters because we believed that it would be impossible to 
get everything unless we had two stenographers, and we 
could not arrange to have even one. Our tests, accordingly, 
were planned so as to be independent of the exact words 
used, and even of the exact order of events in each sit- 
ting. Before each sitting we planned carefully the tests 
which we wished to make, writing out rather full notes 
and questions which Dr. Hall followed carefully during 
the sitting, and which I checked up with the writing of the 
control during the sitting, writing out additional notes at 
the time and directly afterward, either the same night or 
the next morning. 

I read the handwriting as the control wrote, and had 
little difficulty after the first sitting, contrary to what seems 
to be the usual experience. This I consider largely due to 
the fact that our chief aim was to understand as we went 
along what the control was trying to do, that we kept our 
voices deliberate and slow, and asked for repetitions of 
what we could not read, as a matter of course. 

Throughout the sittings Dr. Hall is the speaker, unless 
it is otherwise indicated, his words being in parentheses. 

166 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

Brackets indicate our own comments. Blank spaces indi- 
cate illegible words. 

Mr. G. B. Dorr met us at the station and, as we walked 
over to Mrs. Piper's apartment, explained various things 
to us about the management of the sittings. When we went 
in we were first introduced to Mrs. Piper 's daughters, that 
they might know us in case we ever should come without 
Mr. Dorr, and then we were introduced to Mrs. Piper her- 
self and taken to another room where the sitting was to 
be held. Here Mrs. Piper sat down in a large chair be- 
fore a table with some pillows on it, and we had some desul- 
tory conversation. Dr. Hall introduced himself under his 
own name, and after a little she asked if he were Stanley 
Hall, and seemed somewhat impressed by his visiting her. 
He told her that he had once sat with her years before, and 
had tried to arrange with Dr. Hodgson for a series of sit- 
tings but had not succeeded. There was no attempt to 
conceal identity because we were convinced that if Dr. 
Hall had given an assumed name and the control had told 
his real one, we should only have believed that either the 
control or the waking Mrs. Piper had recognised him. 

After a few minutes of conversation Mrs. Piper's eye- 
lids began to droop ; then a fixed stare came, growing more 
fixed until the eyes closed. Her face worked convulsively, 
her breathing became laboured, and her hands worked 
slightly. They were lying on the cushions in front of her, 
almost on a level with her head. Then her head sank on 
the pillows, with her nose almost buried in them; the 
breathing became snoring, and Mr. Dorr raised her head 
and placed it so that she could breathe freely. This la- 
boured, snore-like breathing continued through the seance. 
The face became quiet, and the right hand began to grope 
for a pencil. 

Mrs. Piper's head was turned toward the left. At her 
right was placed a low table with writing pads and pencils 
on it. The sitter sits at this table and beside Mrs. Piper, 

167 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

so that he can read the writing. Dr. Hall occupied this 
place, I was at his right, and Mr. Dorr most of the time 
knelt between him and Mrs. Piper deciphering the words 
which Dr. Hall could not make out. Throughout the ses- 
sion there was considerable desultory conversation among 
the three of us, but as there was nothing evidential in the 
sitting this probably makes no important difference in the 
value of the report. I found it extremely difficult to get 
anywhere near all that is said, and doubt if even a stenog- 
rapher could do so. 

Mrs. Piper began to write at about 10.50 (the exact time 
was unfortunately not noted), and at this time her pulse 
as taken by Dr. Hall was 84. 

[Presently the hand groped for the pencil, and began to 
write.] 

HAIL. We greet you friends all with peace and joy. (R.) 

Do not place clouds over my vision. (R.) 

I wish you would speak to me. I am Rector, servant of 
God. I am here to greet you to-day. 

Tell Helen I am better off as I am if she can 

UD my meaning. 

Speak to me. Yes. Myers greets you and says he was very 
much interested in voice. Dydeis. Ovid. Be within call. 

(Rector, is Dr. Hodgson within reach?) [Dorr.] 

Yes. 

(Will you tell him Dr. Stanley Hall is here, and see if he 
can't come and conduct the sitting on your side?) [Dorr.] 

Yes. Came this minute. We UD better now. We UD 
better. 

[Here the handwriting became very heavy, marking Hodg- 
son's advent.] 

Hello! I am Hodgson. Who are you? 

(Stanley Hall.) 

Stanley whom? Stanley whom? 

[Dr. Hall gives it again, and asks something about whether 
Hodgson remembered the plans they had made just before his 
death for sittings and investigations.] 

168 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

Of course I do. Were you just You never 

could read my writing. See if it is better now. 

(Oh, yes, it's better than mine now.) 

Capital. 

How are .... I should say so. How is everything with 
you? First rate? 

(Yes. Mr. Dorr, you see, has given me the sitting which 
you wouldn't let me have.) 

Glad of it. I am right glad of it. Delighted to see you. 
Hurry up? Tell me about the problems of life. 
Have you solved any of them yet? 

(I have solved one very important one — the Watseka Won- 
der that you investigated.) 

Glad I am you are 

(She proved not to be genuine. Her motive was that boy 
she wanted to meet.) 

I told you so. I told you so. I had my doubts, had my 
doubts. I remember well. Capital. I am glad you UD. I am 
in the myself old keep at it and 

I will help. Hello George, [to Mr. Dorr.] 

[Mr. Dorr asks if he shall leave, and Hodgson says,] 

Never mind. I will go on. Tell me about yourself as our 
life here is too short not to get at something definite. 

(I have just seen Mrs. Tingley at Point Loma. She is very 
glad you exposed Madam Blavatsky.) 

Amen. I thought she would be if she ever got her senses. 

(I was much surprised. I thought she would be a bitter 
enemy of yours, but she's your friend.) 

I have a letter saying she didn't care for me but 
I care for I know and UD all. their tricks. Do you remember 
[undecipherable and repetition called for] Wolcott? 

(Yes, very well indeed. He died about three years ago.) 

He is here. 

(Ask him what he has to say to me.) 

He is perfectly dumfounded at seeing you here, but says he 
is glad George. Give me my influence if you 

can. It will help to keep my thoughts clear. 

[Mr. Dorr leaves the room and presently comes back with 
a black sweater formerly worn by Hodgson. This is placed in 

14 169 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the right hand, which feels it for a minute and does so at in- 
tervals later.] 

I am really glad to see, really glad to see you again and 
so is Wolcott. 

(Has he any message for his wife? She's just gone to 
Europe.) 

Yes. Tell her if any from this side. He 

has helped her. Sends his love to all. [undecipherable] all. 
Sends kindest remembrances to you. He says you helped him 
greatly in one way [undecipherable word] but your life seemed 
pretty full most of the time. Tell me about philosophy and 
your in belief in it. [Heavy long dash here.] 

Philosophy. Any ideas of to advance about reincarnation or 
any other nonsense. 

(I think the subconscious is everywhere coming to the fore 
now. That's the main thing.) 

Science. 

(Yes, a new science every way. You would be interested 
to know what has been done in the last two years.) 

Splendid. [Heavy dash. Clutches the sweater.] and 

if the subconscious and is all more want 

to prove it and wants to prove it also, from 

But if I know I am he. I am not playing 

tricks either. I did enough of that over there, over there. 

[To Mr. Dorr.] Hello, are you still there? Tell me about 
the [undecipherable] advance regarding subconscious. 

(I think everyone is coming to think that's the main thing, 
in disease, and so on. It is nine-tenths of all the mind we 
have.) 

Amen. [Very heavily written and underscored.] What 
passes in the normal certainly is registered upon registered on 
subconscious and we in turn on our side act directly upon 
it also. 

(Tell me, what do you think of Podmore's new work? He's 
getting rather sceptical about some things.) 

I think as I have always thought. He is too conceited to 
handle a subject successfully. Conceited. 

(Do you think Davis is right? He's been saying some sav- 
age things about you.) 

170 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

Davis means well and I have more respect for him, but 
Podmore is hopelessly conceited, hopelessly. Hop. . . 

he doesn't count for much. 

(Have you followed what Abbott has done with Mrs. Blake, 
or anything else of his work out west I) 

Yes, more or less. I do not favour it much, neither do I 
favour her in the least. 

(Do you favour Hyslop's recent work?) 

Fairly well. He is conscien, conscien, conscientious c-o-n- 
s-c-i-e-n-t-i-o-u-s and well meaning also but a little too credu- 
lous for his own good. I must pull him up a little. 

(I hope you'll do that. Have you followed what James has 
been saying lately about other things \) 

Yes. I do not like the idea however of his giving the im- 
pression that I said that ring was stolen. I did ... I don't 
like the idea of his giving the impression that I said that ring 
was Ring was stolen. I never, never dreamed of say- 

ing such a thing. I saw it my pocket in my 

that's However, we won't discuss that. 

[^Ir. Dorr said at this point that two days before this he 
and James had been looking over some proof of sittings in 
which this matter was discussed, and that Mrs. Piper could 
not have known about it. 3Ir. Dorr also reminded Hodgson 
that this matter was not one in which Dr. Hall was interested 
and was not to the point, to which ^Ir. Hodgson retorted,] 
Read my last words once more, but I am pleased on the whole 
over what James has been doing. 

(Do you like the criticism of all that sort of thing from 
Witmer and the Philadelphia people 

Yes, I don't mind him in the slightest. 

(Yes, but they are having great influence I am afraid.) 

They do not count. Very temporary, as truth will 

(Could you find two people for me, either Mr. Clark or my 
niece, Bessie Beals?) 

One or both. Has your niece got a mother there? 

(No, her mother's here.) 

No, I mean in the body there. I know her. I think I know 
I have heard her speak about her mother there and say she 

171 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

wished she I could prove that she was living to her. 

I think I saw her. Did she not have a sister? 

(No, no sister.) 

Who came here in infancy? 

(I think not.) 

Yes, she did. Hardly lived. Scarcely lived at all in the 
body. I'll tell you about her if I see you again. I'll 

(I wish you could tell me something that happened between 
us, our plans, etc., just before you died.) 

All right, I will. I will certainly later, later I 

will see and have a talk with her. 

(Do you think you could ever find Mr. Clark?) 

I have no doubt about it. I'll Do you re- 

member Hackley, Hackley 

(Hackley? . . . No, I don't just now.) 

I found him recently. 

(Wait a moment . . . What's that man's name? Oh, what 
was that fellow's name?) 

I wanted to speak about that letter you wrote me on the 
society, and your indifferent attitude until they were published. 

(Can you tell me something about that?) 

Yes. I was much annoyed with you at the time but I see 
you meant well better now. Annoyed, annoyed, 
you knew so little about it. As I remember, I told you it was 
useless to try to down a subject of which a man 
knew little or nothing. 

(That's very apropos indeed. That's the most characteristic 
yet. I can't think of any Hackley though.) 

[Dr. Hall here noted on the paper that Mr. Clark was speak- 
ing, which led to the question from me, and after some dis- 
cussion Mr. Dorr asked who was writing. The hand meantime 
had been writing and gave the following,] 

I K. H. 

[Which came as the answer to who was writing.] 

(Good. I thought it was Mr. Clark. I'll have to read it 
all over again.) 

Can't you I understand my point a 

little better. Do you remember my old argument with you 
about this. 

172 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(Yes, I remember he said that a great many times.) 

I am looking for him. Here is Clark. Hurry up, hurry 
up while light lasts, while light lasts, while light lasts. 

(Yes.) 

[Mr. Clark speaks.] 

Do you remember my saying you didn't UD the 

subject? Do please answer as quickly as you can. I am de- 
lighted to meet you again. 

(I think we should agree very much better on all those 
topics now.) 

Indeed so do I. Indeed. You were rather prejudiced and 
very positive, rather over prejudiced and positive, but if you 
have at last caught my ideas, it is a comfort to hear you say so. 

(Haven't you come to my ideas, too, in some things?) 

Of course, true, I admit it, I have. I admit it I admit it. 
You had some excellent ideas and I didn't wish to advance 
them, but on the whole you were prejudiced 

(Are you with Mrs. Clark where you are now?) 

What a question ! What would you naturally suppose ? I 
have been trying to find you for ages, but where you tried to 
find light there seemed so little it was scarcely worth while. 
[Feeling face.] Those sounds were all around and made me 
feel like leaving. Do you ... I see you trying to find me 
where there were terrible sounds going on. Sounds. I did 
not like it. 

[Mr. Dorr speaks:] (Dr. Hall does not want a long sitting 
and would also like to question about a diagnosis. Would that 
be better through the voice or the hand?) 

[The hand shakes in dissent to voice and bows to hand.] 
I am not a physician, but I will find some one who can. 

[Hand feels Dr. HaU's back.] 

Not there. Not there. Let 

[Clark speaks again.] Let me say those sounds at 
were not at all congenial to me. Do you UD ? If so, I'll be 
off. Good-bye. Glad to have seen you for a moment. More 
later. 

I saw your own father a moment ago. Good-bye. 

[Mr. Clark seems to leave and the hand feels Dr. Hall's 
back.] 

173 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Health? Yes I'll tell you, but light is going out soon. 
Soon. Here's a friend who will have a look at you. 

(Can you tell me more about my condition of health?) 

Heart trouble not so. Heart trouble not so. No difficulty. 
Heart trouble, oh no. Heart. Heart trouble? Oh no. Oh no. 
Not so. Oh No. 

[The hand was repeatedly asked here to rewrite, as the 
writing was very illegible.] 

Mr. Dorr again says, (Can't you tell Dr. Hall the symp- 
toms?) 

[Hand feels eyes, face, and back.] Indigestion, but one 
of general health, and do not worry about digestive trouble. 
A trifle anemic. Anemic. Yes. A trifle so. Indigestion. 
[Touches abdomen.] Indigestion. General, not specific. Do 
not get it on your mind. Not enough air. Rest. Rest. 
your heart better not. 

(No.) 

Nor kidneys. 

(No.) 

But anemic but you are 

(I dare say.) 

But you are anemic. You certainly are. No organic dis- 
ease. Organic. This I know. 

(How about my general health?) 

Depression, fatigue, tired, lack of energy. Right, right, 
right. How about sleep? 

(Not enough.) 

I Do not take the universe upon your 

mind upon UNIVERSE when sleep is needed. Let the world 
and its problems rest. 

(That's good.) 

The brain works unceasingly at every turn and wears on 
the nervous system. That's the greatest trouble with you. 

(That's true.) 

You ought to remain in the body a good while if you only 
take care of yourself. That is a fact. 

(That's good news.) 

But you must not burn the candle at both ends as you have 
been doing. Stop and rest. 

174 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(That's good advice.) 

More later. [Handwriting becomes much fainter.] Light 
going. Hodgson going also. Good-bye and good luck to you. 
Adieu. And 

-f- We cease now and may the blessing of God be on 
you R.+ 



SUBLIMINAL 

The hand ceased to write now, at 12 : 11. The face was 
much flushed and mouth open, with saliva dripping slightly. 
The eyes opened very slowly, without winking, with a fixed 
stare. After two or three minutes, there were one or two whis- 
pered words which we could not catch, and then, as nearly as 
we could understand, the following, with considerable pause as 
indicated by the dots: 

Mother . . . mother . . . yah . . don't worry about me . . . 
Fred . . [as if speaking to some one in the spirit world,] He 
is here too . . . oh . . Take your glasses off and they'll know 
you better. [Spoken quite abruptly and more loudly. As I 
am the only one with glasses on, I take them off.] Come along 
. . . Elizabeth . . . Elizabeth . . Elizabeth ... [I ask the 
others, Elizabeth who ? And Dr. Hall says, my niece, isn't it ?] 
Tell my mother . . . Don't worry . . about me . . Better so . . 
Go along there now and tell her . . . [Then in a much changed 
tone, apparently Mrs. Piper's normal self speaking,] O-o-o-oh, 
Awful ! ! [A shudder.] I hate it ! [Looking at Mr. Dorr with 
loathing.] Ain't you ugly! Oh, ain't you ugly! Ain't you 

ugly! [Then, still more normally and speaking to Dr. 

Hall,] Did you hear my head snap? 

Mr. Dorr then said that this marked the end of the 
trance proper, and that she would remember what she said 
from then on. Dr. Hall then took her pulse, time 12:22, 
and it was down to 76. 

We stayed about twenty minutes longer, having desul- 
tory conversation in which Mrs. Piper joined, although she 
looked sleepy, her eyelids drooped a little, and her articu- 

175 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

lation was slightly indistinct. She said that she always felt 
heavy, not much like walking, and Mr. Dorr added that if 
she stays in the trance too long she has no appetite for 
dinner. She also said that if she has too many sittings she 
feels exhausted all the time. 



COMMENTS ON FIRST SITTING 

It is interesting to see how quickly personalities multi- 
ply at the opening of the sitting. First comes Rector; 
almost at once is a message to " Helen," presumably from 
some friend of hers ; then Myers greets us ; and barely have 
we time to refer to Hodgson when he is there with a bang. 
He fires out questions of a general nature which Dr. Hall 
answers as best he can on the spur of the moment, testing 
Hodgson by inventing purely imaginary situations, all of 
which Hodgson recalls readily. In Hodgson's report on 
the Watseka Wonder there is no hint that he ever suspected 
that a boy was the object of the girl's behaviour, and yet 
here he repeats emphatically, " I told you so." 

Wolcott might refer either to a former governor, whom 
Dr. Hall had met once, or to the husband of a friend, whom 
he saw but once, on his wedding day. The reference to 
Dr. Hall's helping either of them is inexplicable, and their 
appearance to him quite mal-apropos. 

The conversation on the subconscious, etc., is of course 
entirely general, while that between Mr. Clark and Dr. 
Hall is open to the same criticism. 

The niece, Bessie Beals, was a fictitious character that 
we had previously tried on another medium with marked 
success, and here it works equally well. Hodgson takes up 
the suggestion with avidity, and proceeds in the approved 
way, with the suggestion that she had a sister, but when 
Dr. Hall cannot recollect this he tries to put it so far in 
the past as to create doubt as to whether Dr. Hall may have 
heard of it, though it is true. 

176 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

Another feeler is thrown out in Hackley, which again 
strikes no responsive chord. 

The diagnosis is amusing. Dr. Hall is emphatically 
not anaemic, nor was he at that time fatigued, depressed, 
or lacking in energy. He was working overtime, and so 
curtailed his hours of sleep at times, but was not sleepless 
or worrying as the diagnosis implies. 

In the subliminal more feelers are thrown out, namely, 
Fred, Elizabeth, and " my mother." 

One of the most interesting things is the control's adop- 
tion of Dr. Hall's suggestion through manner, etc., that 
they knew each other pretty well while alive, and his ref- 
erences to arguments, etc. As a matter of fact Dr. Hall 
knew him so slightly that he cannot recall at all how Hodg- 
son looked, and he is not sure that he ever saw him more 
than once. They exchanged a few letters at different times, 
but that is all. 

Dr. Hall's own state of mind is best given in his own 
words, written within two days after the sitting: 

" Then the right hand waved and groped, and Mr. 
Dorr placed a pencil between the first and second fingers, 
and the hand wrote rapidly : 

" ' Hail! "We greet you friends all with peace and 
joy. R. + Do not place clouds in my vision. R. I am 
Rector, servant of God. R.' 

" This was indeed the great control, Rector, of whose 
deliverances we had read so much, who had honoured us 
by his advent from the world of souls with an angelic salu- 
tation. Had we been believers, devotees, burning to learn 
tidings from the world of the dear or great dead, this would 
have been a culminating moment. Somewhat confusing 
was the wish that I, who had expected to be rather silent, 
should ' speak to ' Rector. Then came the first message : 

" ' Tell Helen I am better off as I am.' 

" Helen who? Quick, how stupid I am! Some Helen 
that I ought to know might give all she possessed to re- 

177 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

ceive this message of the eternal complacency of some one 
dear to her, and to know that he or she was not dead but 
gone before. 

' ' Now comes not the request but the command, ' Speak 
to me.' 

" Speak to whom? Helen's friend or Rector? And 
what can I say when I am uncertain ? I have come to hear 
and have nothing I desire to impart, and indeed I cannot 
think of anything apropos. While I wait, a little dazed 
and confused, comes the message : ' Myers greets you, ' with 
something added about a voice, Ovid, and Dydeis. 

' ' This must be the Corypheus of the English Psychical 
Research Society. What has become of Helen's friend, or 
is it he ? And which of these personalities shall I speak to ? 
for now there are five — Rector, Helen 's friend, Myers, Ovid, 
Dydeis — and perhaps the voice is another, and meanwhile 
we cannot escape a little feeling that we are conversing 
with a modification of Mrs. Piper's own personality. But 
in this tangle Mr. Dorr intervenes, calling for Hodgson, 
who comes on the instant. What immediate command of 
the spirit world! How space is annihilated and how the 
spirits crowd about a medium of communication with earth, 
as if they were constantly pushing each other from the 
yonder end of the wire! Perhaps all these are talking di- 
rectly through Mrs. Piper or even through Rector, who may 
operate this wireless for each in succession. 

" How can he summon individuals from all the vast 
clouds of the spirits of the dead ? If it is my presence with 
the medium that attracts my own friends in the next world, 
I must be the real battery of potency. But it is plain 
that those nearest and dearest to me are not most attracted, 
while some apparent strangers seem to be drawn my way. 
This seems to require the assumption of a wide spacial 
diffusion of spirits, so that there is another function besides 
that of the strength of friendship, viz., the proximity to 
me of the celestial region in which they are. This theory 

178 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

may work out even better than that of the potency of the 
mighty soul-compelling and shepherding power of Rector. 
No wonder we experience a touch of something like stage- 
fright as the realisation shimmers up that we are, as it 
were, translated into a certain part of the vast immeasur- 
able creation with thronging souls on every hand about us. 
But we must lay aside this throng of exciting impressions 
to be remembered and dealt with later, for Hodgson is 
curious and insistent with a volley of brisk questions. He 
must first identify me surely by my first name ; then apolo- 
gises for his writing, which is execrable, and asks first: 

" ' How is everything? Hurry up. Tell me the prob- 
lems of life ; have you solved them yet ? ' 

" Thus challenged, I trump up patter about the Wat- 
seka wonder, whom Hodgson investigated and of whom a 
later, more sceptical student suggested a solution, the very 
hint of which Hodgson immediately accepts though it makes 
ducks and drakes of his own study of the case while on 
earth. Again summoned to tell something, I blunder into 
the stupendous and very compound falsehood about Mrs. 
Tingley. Hodgson's intense hunger for news must be fed. 
What have his friends been doing that he is not better 
informed ? And back of all in my consciousness is the mar- 
vel how he can possibly accept the absurdest gaff I can 
think of with such implicit and immediate faith. Surely 
all his life and since he must have been used to dealing 
with people who treat spirits with implicit honesty, and his 
acceptance of my involuted lie fills me with qualms of con- 
science. But I am a detective in quest of truth, and the 
end must justify the means. Strange, too, that he should 
be so glad to meet me, stranger and critic though he knew 
me in the flesh. But, poor soul, he must have lost intimate 
touch with earth and, as a traveller in a far-distant coun- 
try feels like falling on the neck of the veriest stranger, 
no matter who he be, from his own native land, so Hodg- 
son's pleasure and his familiar greeting of me as ' old chap ' 

179 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

is moving evidence of the breadth of the chasm that would 
completely isolate this and the other world, were it not 
for the few wireless stations which have been erected in 
the souls of mediums. 

1 ' But I am left no time to yield even to remorse at my 
base and clumsily trumped up fabrication. Indeed a new 
and cogent evidence of the sagacity of the denizens of the 
spirit world is just here revealed. An instant call for 
Wolcott at this point must be the way in which, according 
to well-bred spirits, the subject is politely, if abruptly, 
changed when they detect mendacity in the depths of the 
communicator's soul. As I better understand the etiquette 
of the celestial spheres, I shall realise in what a masterly 
manner my lie was drawn fully out by the method of pre- 
tended acceptance, and that I was given to understand in 
this delicate way that I was completely seen through. 

" But Wolcott, when I thought I had identified him, 
was a surprise. How could so mundane a man have joined 
the spiritual circle above? And is he talking directly to 
me, or does he tell Hodgson, Hodgson tell Rector, and Rec- 
tor tell me through Mrs. Piper's hand? Probably Wol- 
cott himself is at the phone, because it was at this point 
that Hodgson's sweater was needed and brought to bring 
him back. But where is Rector, and what is he doing ? I 
cannot even know whom I am communicating with but 
must prattle on, after charging my memory with Wolcott 's 
message to his living wife, to be delivered when I can. 
How heartily he accepts all my platitudes about the uncon- 
scious and Davey, kindly ignoring my error in calling him 
Davis, about Mrs. Blake, Abbott, Hyslop, James, Witmer — 
these are references to the latest literature on the subject 
on which the controls, whoever they are, are remarkably 
well informed and up to date. To be sure, their responses 
to my information are vague, but they make up in hearti- 
ness and emphasis. It seems to me that they are making 
me do too much of the talking and are learning far more 

180 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

of my world than I of theirs. My news-letter to them 
would be luridly yellow, even where it was most truthful, 
but now all is eagerly devoured. They must be drawing 
me on to fill up to the brim the measure of my falsity. 

' ' But I go on with abandon now, for there could be no 
more unpardonable sin against the Manes than I have 
already committed; and so very subtly and cleverly I call 
for a fictitious name along with that of a man whom I knew 
very well. Both are present on the instant. The pseudo- 
personality, Bessie Beals, was accepted and she immedi- 
ately appeared. What could this mean? Possibly there 
was a soul to be thus named awaiting birth, or one who 
had lived and was awaiting reincarnation, if transmigra- 
tion is true. Here is indeed a plump and astonishing new 
fact, and I must later reconstruct my astral psychology at 
my leisure. To complete the confusion, a relative within 
three days mentioned to me incidentally one Bessie Beals, 
still living, as a friend, whom I may have heard her speak 
of before. If so, the control read the name registered in 
my subliminal mind. I hope that she will not be told, for 
such an incident might seem an uncanny prognostication 
that she will soon join the spirit forces. Is it possible to 
construct a phantom spirit out of the stuff that dreams are 
made of ? And, on the other hand, could I have invented a 
name, with ever so much labour, which no one ever bore? 
If not, my contemplated strategy can never be conclusively 
negative. 

" I am asked of her mother and told of a tiny baby 
sister whose existence I deny, but I am informed that she 
died when very tiny. I wonder how small? Perhaps so 
long before birth that even her mother did not know. The 
spirits must be infallible and such things do happen, as 
medical literature tells us. But, hold! All is fictitious. 
She would be the sister of nobody, so my refutation is im- 
possible, for there is nothing but my own verbal image, for 
I have not invested Bessie with any traits whatever. She 

181 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

is vox et praeterea nihil. The control sees through all this 
and I am punished aright. A fool is answered according 
to his folly. But the spirits are delicate as well as subtle 
not to overwhelm me with more open confusion. 

1 ' Clark now has his innings, and I am complimented by 
his partial concession that in some disputed points he now, 
with his clarified insight, acknowledges that I was right, 
although in others he still confutes me ; therefore, in these 
I must be wrong. But what are the points of present agree- 
ment and disagreement? Here again the spirits leave us 
just at the point of the most tantalising will-to-know. I 
must henceforth remain in ignorance, even of the meaning 
of a few words, because utterly illegible, in his oracular 
sentences; and others I could torture and compose into as 
many kinds of meanings as the sibylline leaves. But he 
has had his turn and must yield. 

' ' Then comes my dear father, but how agonising ! He 
only presents his card as a present and says good-bye; 
but is his farewell merely for the moment? Can he be 
recalled, or is his farewell for this world or possibly even 
for the next ? How the sitter is tormented with hind-sights 
that came an instant too late ! What will the spirits think 
of a man who will let the seconds of possibility of com- 
munion with his father slip by, not showing that he even 
wishes to meet him, and turn to the selfish questioning con- 
cerning his own health ? 

" This, too, is reckless temerity. Some people are re- 
luctant to submit to thoroughgoing medical examination, 
to test for incipient but not yet recognised diseases of heart, 
lungs, kidneys, brain, nerves; but with due trepidation, I 
even sought the infallible X-ray diagnosis of the immor- 
tals. Will they give me a clean bill of health or am I to 
live henceforth under a sentence of impending dissolution ? 
Do I really want or dare to submit my physical condition 
to their omniscience? Alas, I am growing a little tense 
in the mood of a plunger, and I must know. At my age, 

182 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

too, death may lurk nearer than I dream; yet I confess 
my courage is buoyed up by a feeling that I am so sarcous 
that I cannot entirely escape the physical plane, and a 
partial sense that I am submitting to the mortal arbitra- 
ment of Mrs. Piper, and that, though a potent ghost-com- 
peller, she is at least in this first interview on the whole 
so favourably disposed toward me that her disposition will 
be that I may live on, and that will weigh something toward 
a favourable verdict. Perhaps, if she had fully realised 
my true sceptical attitude, I might be condemned to early 
dissolution; but my prophetic soul is right in this case, 
and so with what joy do I learn that, if I do not overwork, 
I may hope to live and work for a yet goodly tale of years. 

" ' You ought to remain in the body a good while yet 
if you only take care of yourself. That is a fact.' 

' ' And now came the benediction : 

" ' Adieu, and may the blessing of God be with you. 
R.+ ' 

1 ' Rector disappeared and we are again in the world of 
mortals. 

" How vastly harder and longer for the medium to re- 
turn from the other shore than to get there ! How reluctant 
and how slow is the recessional! How painful the way 
back and down! So ecstatic has been her condition, that 
contrast intensifies the agony of it all. Her face is pathet- 
ically marked by the embroidery of the pillow and the 
folded towel; her hair is dishevelled; her eyes are bleary 
and vacant, and her mouth slightly drooling. How all her 
womanly instincts must be outraged by our keen observa- 
tion and even our presence as she recovers from the psy- 
chic operation which she has undergone! She murmurs 
almost incoherently snatchy and disconnected phrases, and 
we place our ears close to her mouth to hear them. Her 
staring eyes catch a glimpse of the face of Mr. Dorr, which 
she recognises as the first land-mark on the nether shore to 
which she is doomed to return ; and, although he is not bad- 

183 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

looking, she cries out thrice and with loathing : ' Aren't you 
ugly ? ' So entrancing have been the dreams of the bourne 
from which few travellers return, but from which she is 
making perhaps her five-thousandth laboured land-fall, 
that her poor soul must feel expelled from Paradise for, 
although she must have glimpsed it in her communion with 
its denizens, the hour of her permanent translation has not 
yet come. We should be stony-hearted indeed, did we not 
share the pathos and pity of it all. 

" Indeed it is sad enough for us, for now we must go 
home and devote ourselves to the laborious decipherment of 
sixty pages and subject them to exhaustive tests; but the 
oracle itself is done. What is written is written. We can 
only wait until this remarkable middle-woman shall again 
consent to re-open the celestial world for us, who can mean- 
while only rehearse our recollections and re-peruse our 
script, and remember how our hearts burned as our ac- 
quaintances in the spirit world spoke to us and left our 
souls so hungry for more complete impartations. All was 
so appetising yet so baffling, and we await on tip-toe of ex- 
pectation the renewal of the heavenly rapport. Everything 
indicates that intelligence somehow travels very rapidly up 
yonder, and next time perhaps the dear departed will hear 
that we have found a way for them to reach us ; and, realis- 
ing that they can do so, they may anxiously await the re- 
opening of the line of communication and throng about its 
terminal, charged with messages of love and assurance, 
pneumatically discerning and tenderly making allowance 
for our dulness and — perhaps also realising that next time 
it may be well for them to bring better credentials of their 
identification. 

' ' But how grossly mundane and material we have been 
all these years in our fleshly tabernacles, and how incred- 
ulous and inhospitable to realities and personalities above, 
and with what toil and moil of soul must we now recon- 
struct our poor philosophy of life to make it f adge with the 

184 



FIRST SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

revelations that have been vouchsafed us in this momentous 
hour. Perhaps the lengthened span of life the spirit has 
allowed me may suffice for suitable adjustment ; yet there is 
no time to spare, for it must be an au rebours conversion 
and should have come earlier in life. Yet better, far better, 
late than never. At any rate, of all the variations of the 
memory symphony of these ninety minutes in the former 
critical or negative mood, this variant, with the stop of 
sympathetic faith pulled full on, is registered as the most 
harmonious of all. Indeed, this interpretation is more con- 
sistent with the remarkable will-to-believe, which coincides 
most exactly with the deep, hereditary impulsion from an 
immemorial past, back it may be to the Cave Dwellers, 
who believed essentially thus. It is the easiest, fondest, 
most popular, comforting view-point. And so let the stern 
laws of nature and science, that are so hard on such invet- 
erate credulities, dear though they be to the heart, mellow 
a little. The Memnonian lips of the Sphinx, hitherto so 
silent as to the destiny of the soul, are at last parted a 
little and whispering to tell us that though man dies he 
shall live again. Or is it only the murmur of the sea-shell, 
giving back to the ear the entaural susurrus of the circula- 
tion of its own blood? Videant consules, which means pay 
your twenty plunks and take your choice.' ' 



15 



CHAPTER XI 
SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: SECOND SITTING 

Between the first and second sittings we endeavoured 
to formulate a plan for testing the control thoroughly. 

First as to the things we believed it unprofitable to do. 
We were convinced that it would be valueless to conceal 
our names and identity, since even if Mrs. Piper afterward 
gave them to us, it would be non-evidential to us, Dr. Hall 
being so well known and various people being necessarily 
informed of our plans. We also escaped in this way a 
long series of fishing operations to which most sitters are 
subjected when first they begin to sit. 

Further, we had no desire whatever to obtain " test 
messages," my results from the published sittings having 
shown their triviality and dreariness and the impossibility 
of getting down all the remarks and other circumstances 
which might explain them. 

The difficulty in recording everything said, especially 
the exact words, made it necessary to employ tests of such 
a nature that their validity would not depend upon getting 
the exact language, but only the sense. 

On the positive side, we wished to test various things. 
In general, our problem was to account for all the content 
of each sitting, to trace it back to its sources if possible. 
These sources are two in number, namely, the medium's 
own knowledge, and the knowledge of the sitter. The me- 
dium's own knowledge we assumed to be gained in some 
normal way. Either the control, that is the subconscious 
self, retains memories forgotten by Mrs. Piper and of whose 

186 



SECOND SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

source it itself is ignorant, or it knows more or less con- 
sciously where they came from. The normal Mrs. Piper, 
we will assume, has not a distinct enough memory of the 
trance state to try to help out the control, even if she 
wished to. This does not, however, dispose of the possi- 
bility that the normal self may assist the subconscious. 

One of the most common things in a sitting is for the 
control to say that he will consider some problem and give 
an answer at a later sitting. Sometimes this extends over 
weeks or months, the problem being referred to every now 
and then. At the same time, the content of all sittings is 
most carefully kept a secret from Mrs. Piper and her 
daughters until they are published. Now, why is it not 
possible that the problems so set for the control affect the 
waking consciousness in some such way as post-hypnotic 
suggestions do, or perhaps better, why may they not emerge 
into waking life or dreams as is often the case in recognised 
cases of secondary personality? Ansel Bourne, for in- 
stance, had dreams of his first self long before he had any 
memory of it, and images and incidents of his first life 
would pop up in his mind as if uncaused, and were not 
recognised by him. Is it not possible that sometimes words, 
names, etc., from the trance thus pop up into Mrs. Piper's 
mind, and if they catch her attention and rouse her curi- 
osity she may speak of them or look up their meaning and 
connections ? 

This hypothesis of course could only be tested com- 
pletely if some investigator could live in close personal re- 
lations with Mrs. Piper, and she was willing to think out 
loud as much as possible. 

Whether this hypothesis is true or not, undoubtedly the 
lapse of time between asking questions and giving answers 
allows the subconscious mind to put together all its knowl- 
edge, to mull over the matter, and to guess and infer as 
to what is wanted. This easily accounts for the fact that 
the first sitting is usually the worst. 

187 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

The other side of this matter is, how much the control 
remembers of Mrs. Piper. We were not able to find in the 
published records that any careful investigation of this 
matter has been made, and it seemed as if it would be an 
interesting problem. The control states that he has no 
knowledge of Mrs. Piper, and no relations to her body, 
but is this really true? How much sensitiveness is there 
in the medium's body? How similar are her modes of 
thought and the control's, and her emotional disposition 
and his? In short, how many points of connection can we 
establish between the two? 

The second source of information is the sitter. Here 
we wished to see how amenable the control would be to sug- 
gestion, and how much he would give us of fact which we 
had not first given to him. 

In all this, of course, we were confronted by the ques- 
tion of what our attitude to the control should be. We 
recognised that some ardent partisans of the control will 
consider any real experimenting with him as a breach of 
faith, to say nothing of a breaking of moral laws. But 
such partisans are not seriously to be considered in any 
experimenting. We, therefore, had no hesitation in going 
ahead in the same way that we should in any laboratory 
experiments. The Psychical Research Society and the nor- 
mal Mrs. Piper have said repeatedly and explicitly that 
they wish this matter to be tried out to the utmost, and we 
simply took them at their words. Now, in all psychological 
experiments where the subject's own consciousness is con- 
cerned, it is not wise to let the subject know the nature or 
purpose of the experiments, because such knowledge inev- 
itably modifies his attitude and vitiates the results. In 
many experiments the experimenter deliberately leads the 
subject astray, distracting his attention to unessentials by 
his remarks, arrangement of apparatus, etc. In doing this 
he does not consider either that he is morally telling a 
lie, or that he implies any doubts of the subject's verac- 

188 



SECOND SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

ity. He is simply fulfilling the best conditions for the 
experiment. 

This then was our attitude toward Mrs. Piper and her 
control. We had read repeatedly and had also been told 
that we could not get the best results without being sympa- 
thetic and open-minded, and this we endeavoured to be. 
We told Mrs. Piper frankly that we did not know what our 
conclusions would be, but that we wished to experiment and 
were open to conviction, and she gave us carte blanche. 

We laid our plans, therefore, along the general lines in- 
dicated above, though not strictly in that order. 

To ascertain the similarities and differences between the 
control and the normal, and also to discover any feeling 
complexes which might help to account for the splitting 
up of the normal self, we thought that perhaps we might 
apply the Jung-Freud method of lists of words with their 
reaction times, giving them both in the trance and normal 
states. According to this theory, when a word is given, the 
subject is asked to give the first word that comes into his 
head, as quickly as possible. If this word comes slowly, or 
if the association between it and the test word is a superfi- 
cial one, it indicates some feeling connected with that word. 
In the case of ambiguous words, the direction taken by 
the association shows something of the subject's mental atti- 
tude, also indicating feelings among those lines. 

We proceeded therefore, for our second sitting, first to 
make out a list of 100 words, having in mind especially 
certain sets of ideas which Jung and Freud have found most 
common in their cases of divided personality. 

1. Words relating directly to sex. Freud believes that 
nearly or quite all of his cases are referable to shock along 
this line. In Mrs. Piper's case such a shock might have 
occurred in her first operation, as well as in the accident 
which preceded it, or there may have been some shocks 
unknown to us. 

2. We had also a group of words bearing upon tumor, 

189 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

operation, etc., to see how much if any lengthening of reac- 
tion there was here. 

3. A group on women's occupations to bring out char- 
acteristic masculine reactions from the control and fem- 
inine ones from the normal. 

4. A group connected with mediumship. 

5. A small one on tragedy. 

6. Words as filling. 

This list we wished to give first to the control and then 
to the waking Mrs. Piper on the same day. 

In the second place, we wished to test the suggestibility 
of the control, and incidentally his veracity. We there- 
fore created two more spirits, taking as basis the words 
Helen and Hackley, thrown out by the control at the first 
sitting. We argued that if the control were sincere he 
would tell us that he could not find these spirits, and even 
if a lying spirit, who pretended to be one of these, usurped 
their name and function, such a spirit would hardly dare 
to invent incidents, but would confine himself to assenting 
to our remarks or to making general ones. 

Much of the conversation between the sitters was not 
taken down in this sitting, but this matters little for our 
purposes, since we were not after test messages. 

Before Mrs. Piper entered the trance we talked with 
her about various things. Dr. Hall explained to her that 
we had no doubt at all about the genuineness of her trance 
or of her own honesty, and asked her if she could produce 
the trance at will, and how she did it. 

She said that she tried to make her mind a blank and 
to forget our presence, but that she did not think of her 
breathing or regulate it at all. Mr. Dorr insisted at some 
length that she knows nothing about those Oriental re- 
ligious cults in which breathing is an important part of the 
ritual. 

When asked as to whether she has any memory of her 
trances, she said with reiteration and emphasis that she 

190 



SECOND SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

never has even a glimmer of memory, that when she reads 
the reports of her sittings it is just like reading about 
another person, and that she can hardly believe that she 
did and said the things recorded. 

She has read every published report of her sittings. 
She also has tried to read some of Prince's works, but 
found them ' ' tiresome, ' ' while she very much liked James 's 
" Varieties of Religious Experience.'' 

Religiously, she was brought up as a Methodist, but 
when her parents moved to a town where there was only a 
Congregational church, they and she joined that. Of late 
years she has not belonged to any church. She has thought 
of connecting herself with one, but has been held back by 
doubt as to whether any church would care to have her, 
with her mediumistic powers, as a member. 

This conversation lasted perhaps fifteen minutes. At 
10.30 she began to look sleepy and her eyes were slightly 
fixed, her pulse was 84; at 10.31 her mouth began to 
drop open ; at 10.32 her respiration was 22, breathing ster- 
torous, eyes closed; at 10.33, pulse 84, respiration 15, 
breathing very stertorous, head dropped to pillow ; at 10.35, 
respiration 10. 

Hand began writing at 10.35 or 10.36. 

-f-Hail. We return again to act ever more with peace and 
joy.+ (R) 

(Can you bring Hodgson?) 

We will, friend, he is coming. -{- R. 

[The hand then twists, clenches, and looks very tense, but 
the writing does not seem heavier or different.] 

Hello! I am Hodgson. Hello, Hall. Glad to see you. 
Here is nowadays all right. 

[Dr. Hall then explains at some length our plan for trying 
the Jung method, something as follows.] 

(Now, Hodgson, I remember something I want you to go 
back to. Do you remember our talk at the Botolph Club about 
a new method with words that has been very successful and 

191 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

very important? You know it is something like this: I give 
you a word, and you write down the first thing that comes 
into your head, no matter what it is, just as quickly as you 
can. Now, this will be of a great deal of help to me, and will 
be very important indeed. Will you try it?) 

I will if I understand clearly. Speak slowly. All right. 
Fire away. 

(For instance, now, when I say Boy, you are to write 
the first thing you can. Boy, man. Desk, chair, etc. Do 
you see?) 

[The hand assents eagerly, and Dr. Hall goes through the 
list given in the Appendix. We had intended to take the re- 
action times, but it was all so rapid that we found it impos- 
sible to do so. Except where noted the hand would dash at the 
paper before Dr. Hall got the whole word out, and write it 
very rapidly. Throughout, the hand was quivering and rest- 
less. When it could not get an association at once, the pencil 
tapped the paper restlessly, and the whole impression was that 
of the most intense alertness and eagerness. We had been 
afraid that Hodgson might be reluctant or suspicious of any- 
thing new and strange, but, on the contrary, he took it up with 
avidity and seemed to look on it as a sort of game. 

This as well as the remainder of the sitting show how ex- 
tremely suggestible the control is. It looks as if he were only 
too glad to let some one else take the lead, and give him all 
the suggestions that that implies, and that long immunity from 
deceitful sitters has made him singularly confiding and trust- 
ful so that it never occurs to him that they may deliberately 
lead him astray. 

Mr. Dorr has said that even if we succeeded in getting the 
controls to admit that they were only secondary personalities, 
it would prove nothing, since they are so suggestible that they 
would probably adopt any theory, whether it is true or not. 
The point is that the control's assertions about his identity 
have no value one way or the other, and this perhaps is true. 
But if the sitter can make the control change his personality 
at will, sometimes being purely fictitious personages, and 
sometimes real ones, with as much ease and vividness in the 
one case as in the other, it certainly creates a strong presump- 

192 



SECOND SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

tion that the impersonations of real characters are also just 
impersonations and no more. 

We ought also to note that Mr. Dorr as well as the Re- 
searchers generally are keenly aware that much of wnat is said 
by the sitters is never taken down, and is forgotten even before 
the sitting is over.] 

[After the list was finished, Dr. Hall said:] 

(Thank you very much, Hodgson. That was splendid. You 
have been very patient, and I'll do as much for you some 
time.) 

Never you mind about that, old chap. How much wiser are 
you than you were before? 

(Oh, I'm a lot wiser. I've learned a great deal, and I'll 
tell you about it later.) 

I am not sure that I can understand. 

(Oh, yes, you can, when I tell you.) 
it. I felt it fatiguing. 

(Now, Hodgson, I want to ask you a very important 
question.) 

[Dr. Hall then explains that after the last sitting it came 
to him that he did once know a Helen Shackleigh, the wife 
of an old friend, Dr. Borst, with whom he had studied in Ger- 
many. It had occurred to him that this was the Helen men- 
tioned at the very beginning of the first sitting, and that 
Hackley was an attempt to get Shackleigh. He asked the 
control if he remembered writing Hackley, and the control 
replied :] 

I said it certainly. Who is that? Plem 

(That was an attempt, then, to spell her name?) 

Phonetically. 

(Then, do you know her husband, Dr. Borst?) 

Yes, I do know well. 

(She very much wants to hear from him.) 

I'll find him and all you have to do is bring her here. 

[At this point came an interlude, Dr. Hall exclaiming over 
the difficulty of reading the writing, and appealing to Mr. Dorr 
to help him, and Dr. Tanner telling him that he must stop the 
hand when it was illegible and make it rewrite. The hand 
seemed to listen, and at the last, nodded approval and wrote,] 

193 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

You have a good clear head, whoever you are, and I am 
glad to meet you. 

[Dr. Hall then said:] 

(If this is you, Dr. Borst, I want you to give a message — ) 

[The hand interrupted,] 

He says, I will find him and bring him here. 

(He was an old friend of mine. We studied together years 
ago in Germany.) 

I know all about it. I'll help you as much as I can. 

(He was a good deal such a chap as you are, but he did 
not believe in Spiritualism. His wife did, but he drove it out 
of her, and now she wants to hear from him.) 

He will tell you what is in his mind presently. More later. 
Have you got anything more about materialisation? Mate- 
rialisation. 

(Not since the last sitting. You gave me some pretty tough 
problems at the last sitting, and you've helped me very 
much.) 

I want you to know there are certain conditions under 
which I could shake hands with you but there would be no — 
could shake hands with you. 

(I don't understand. What are those conditions?) 

Certain cosmic laws govern our return. Cosmic. I 
my ethereal conditions I will Hall, 

Hall. Ah! Ah! I have you now. 

[Apparently this marks the advent of Borst.] 

I told you I should live. Help light. 

[Mrs. Piper's nose had become buried in the pillow so that 
she could hardly breathe. The hand continues writing at con- 
siderable length without question or suggestion.] 

Tell Helen I want her to know I am changed in many re- 
spects and ask her if she remembers how annoyed I got with 
her over a certain book she gave me one Christmas. I didn't 
like the subject. She used to say I was stubborn. Ask her if 
she thinks so now? I want of all things to help her. 

(Was the book about Spiritualism?) 

No, but about Olcott theories, Olcott. 

(Repeat that word.) 

Theories. Olcott theories. She was very long-headed after 

194 



SECOND SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

all. I admit it. I admit. Ask her if she remembers a mole 
scar. SCAR 

[Repetition called for.] 

Mole. Mole. Mole. 

(Any message to Ernst or Emmeline?) 

Yes. Tell Helen to give them my love and love to 
go on with this More later. More later. 

(Do you remember once coming to my house to visit? It 
was on your first — No, I think your second, visit to this 
country ?) 

Didn't you and I go go to hear a lecture? 

(Yes, we did. Good.) 

Yes, I do remember. Do you remember my discussing the 
problem of the German government? What are you all doing 
that you do not answer? Finish. Finished. 

[Dr. Borst seemed to take his departure at this point, and 
the pulse and respiration of the medium were noted. We then 
resumed.] 

(Can you tell me more about my niece, Bessie Beals?) 

She says she is very glad to see you again but says she 
thinks you do not TJD about — 

(Write clear.) 

Do I talk as fast as you do? She has not got all those 
problems worked out yet. She says that figure she saw was 
that Sunday morning. 

[Mr. Dorr explains that Dr. Hall is not able to read clearly.] 

Of course I UD that perfectly, George. She is very anxious 
to speak to her mother. 

(Good. Her mother would be glad to get any message. 
You did not say much to her last time. Can't you send her 
a message?) 

I want her to know that I am not dead, but that I am help- 
ing those girls. IJD. Girls. Girls with their studies — 

(What girls do you mean?) [Dorr.] 

And please tell her she need not worry about me. I UD 
why I was troubled. 

(Oh, how beautiful! Who is troubling about you?) 

[Hodgson seems to break in in response to some unnoted 
remark from Mr. Dorr.] 

195 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Don't you trouble about me, George. If you and William 
do not stop your sceptic remarks about me I'll give you a good 
shaking up later on. 

I wish to get this remarks to her people. Do 

you UD my message to mother? To her people. Tell Mother 
I do I do wish you would tell her not to keep that worrying 
about me. 

(Worrying about whom?) [Dorr.] 

(This is Bessie, is it?) 

I UD why I am here and I am glad to see you. Mother's 
eyes have given her so much trouble. Tell her I will help her 
greatly. 

(Tell me something that happened between us, can't you? 
You know you were at our house so much, and I helped you 
all through college.) 

Yes, but do you remember when you said, You come to me 
and I'll explain. Did you read my writing? 

(Yes, this time very well.) 

You did not use to like it I remember. 

(Like what?) [Dorr.] 

Oh dear, what is the matter with you all? Can't you UD 
I wonder. 

(Like what, Hodgson?) [asks Mr. Dorr, again.] 

I want you to remember what you said about my UD 
and how I worked WORKED. I tried to show my appre- 
ciation. 

(What did you use to call me, your uncle?) 

[Hand does not understand, and the question is repeated, 
the hand writing the final words.] 

Call me. Stick to me and let it come when I go out I 
want to make it clear that I cannot go on forever. I want to 
bring her back with me. It is a fine girl. 

(Is this Bessie Beals?) 

Yes. She is too. She is! You UD. You are all right I 
see. [Addressed to Dr. Tanner, who explained the above.] 
I you remember The ether is going 

out fast. 

(Is the light getting tired?) [Dorr.] 

Yes. 

196 



SECOND SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(Say anything that comes to you before you pass. You 
yourself, Hodgson.) [Dorr.] 

I want very much to give these messages clearly, but I lost 
nearly all my vigour in answering those questions. 

(Thank you very much, Dr. Hodgson, for answering those 
questions.) [Tanner.] 

I hope to get these clearer for her some day. I talk them 
over and see what I can do. I mean with her. Hall, I fear 
I shall have to take my leave. 

(Well, Hodgson, I don't want to tire you. I know I've 
worked you pretty hard and I'm much obliged to you. I hope 
we can meet again soon.) 

When do we meet again? Come and tell me. 

[This apparently was addressed to Mr. Dorr, and a conver- 
sation ensued as to a future date, between Mr. Dorr, Dr. Hall 
and the control.] 

(I think the third after coming will be best.) [Dorr.] 

God willing. God willing. 

(And there will be no writing on Tuesday so that the Light 
may be fresh.) [Dorr.] 

Better. 

(We will leave it so then.) [Dorr.] 

If it is clear. 

(And Dr. Hall will come on the third after coming.) 
[Dorr.] 

I see. I UD. I want you to recall that medium I used to 
talk with you about, Hall. 

(Next time I want you to tell me if you knew Borst your- 
self, Hodgson. I think you knew him.) 

I certainly will. That first experiment used me up, so 
to say. 

(Pretty fatiguing, was it?) 

Yes. Don't you UD about — 

I want you to recall that young clergyman Krebs who had 
light. 

(Who do you mean had light?) [Dorr.] 

Clergyman I experimented with whose wife 

was so distressed I told you all about. Don't you remember, 
Hall, because he had light. I told you about him, all about 

197 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

him, and you said it was due to suggestion, probably. Do you 
remember? Do you remember — 

[Mr. Dorr suggested that we had better stop as the light 
was tired.] 

Let me refresh his memory, George, for further experiment. 
Hall, recall if possible. Good-bye. Auf wiedersehen. 

Well, you listen to me when I go. Adieu. Good-bye 
George. Thank you very much. 

+ We cease now and may the blessing of God rest on 
you. -f- R. 

SUBLIMINAL 

There were indistinct words at first, and then: Mother 
finds her there — Mother'll find — I want mother to have them. 
My photographs are — Uncle Stan, Stan — Oh, what idiots! 
Can't you hear me? Hodgson — find out about the little girls 
yet — Ask my mother, Hodgson says I have been from Osh- 
kosh to Timbuctoo hunting for Borst. I'll find out next time 
I see you. I'll bring him up to continue this conversation. 
What is your opinion of these cosmic laws? Yes, I've been in 
the witness box. That's all right. I knew it would be so. 

[She looked very intently into the room and was asked, 
Whom are you looking at?] 

I was coming in on the cord. Very dark, very dark now. 
I want to tell you about Elizabeth. 

(Good, that's what I want to hear.) 

Where are they all gone to? 

(We're right here.) 

[She looks very intently first at Dr. Tanner and then at 
Dr. Hall] 

(You don't remember me.) 

What makes you look so black? 

[She looks again at him very intently.] 

Oh! 

[Again :] 

(You don't remember me yet.) 

Yes. You're in the body. I do. 

(Do I look black now?) 

198 



SECOND SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

You? [In great surprise.] No! Who ever said you did? 
Did you hear my head snap? 

[A dialogue ensued between her and Dr. Hall as to the 
snapping. Dr. Hall said he had been listening to hear it 
snap, and she seemed to think that that was a ridiculous 
idea and asked how he could hear it when it was in her head. 
He asked if she heard it in her ears, and she replied that 
it was in the top of her head, like something falling down 
inside. 

About this time her head snapped again.] 

She still looked sleepy but knew us now and talked very 
easily, all of us joining in a general conversation about her 
feelings on coming out of the trance. She has been under 
the influence of gas and ether, and says that coming out 
from the trance is much like coming out from them. Some- 
times she has sensations of falling, and people at first look 
small and far off. She is also inclined to be voluble, and 
Mr. Dorr says that if she is asked questions at this time 
she is very likely to say things that later she is sorry for, 
about sitters, giving information, etc., showing that the 
usual conventional inhibitions are still lacking. 

Dr. Hall then explained to her about his list of test 
words, and asked her if she would be willing to try it now, 
or if she was too tired. She seemed entirely willing, but 
Mr. Dorr was reluctant. He said that she was still a little 
sleepy, and that it would be better to take her before a 
trance, when she was quite fresh. Dr. Hall, however, said 
that we wanted to try her then, too, but that to get her 
after the trance was a part of the experiment. He went 
on and explained the test, experimenting with Mr. Dorr 
and me to show what he meant, and to make her feel at 
ease, and while giving the series all of us at times talked 
between words. She seemed to get rather embarrassed and 
nervous at times, and now and then she appealed to Mr. 
Dorr, when she said she got no word, to know what he had, 
showing that she realised to some extent that probably some 

199 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

sort of comparison was being made or would be made be- 
tween her and others. 1 

The variations of pulse and respiration during the 
trance were as follows, pulse in each case being given first : 

At 10.30, 84, 22. 

10.33, 84, 15. 

10.35, 10. 

11.16, 82, 8. 

11.55, 70, 10. [Pulse stronger than before.] 

11.57, 16. [Respiration 16 when she begins to talk in 
the subliminal.] 

The writing ceased at 11.54. The head then became 
restless, tossing about on the pillow, and rising a little with 
each breath. The face was considerably flushed at first but 
soon became normal. At no time was there any salivation. 
The eyes began to open slowly at 11.57, without winking. 
At 12.08 she recognised us and gave our names. 

i See Appendix. 



CHAPTER XII 
SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: THIRD SITTING 

Dr. Hall and Dr. Tanner were again met at the station 
by Mr. Dorr, and on the way over to Mrs. Piper's Dr. Hall 
asked various questions which he had made out beforehand 
with regard to the trance conditions. First, does the con- 
trol or the subconscious mind work over the material be- 
tween sittings ? Mr. Dorr did not give his own opinion on 
this point, but said that Mr. Piddington had told him that 
very frequently when asked a question the control did not 
answer it at the time, but left it for a week or two and 
then gave a very interesting and apt answer, while if 
pressed to answer at once the answer would frequently be 
meaningless. (This also is very noticeable in the unpub- 
lished series which Dr. Tanner has been studying. It seems 
to be Mr. Dorr's practice to give the control a word or 
sentence at one sitting, with the injunction to think it over 
and give the answer either in the subliminal or in the next 
sitting. The control then gives either references to the 
question or various tentative answers, sometimes extending 
these references and answers over periods of even five or 
six weeks before the final and complete answer is given.) 

Did children ever communicate through Mrs. Piper? 
At first Mr. Dorr did not recall that they did, but later he 
recalled that a recent sitter had had children come, and in 
some of the published sittings collected by Hodgson the 
baby daughter, three years old, of two sitters, came again 
and again during twelve sittings. 

Did any stenographer ever take all the notes of the sit- 
ting, and why not? Stenographers have been brought in, 
16 201 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Mr. Dorr said, to sittings, but the controls usually object 
to them on the ground that they bring in another influence. 
The objection is made solely on the ground that every addi- 
tional person tends to confuse the control, and not on the 
ground that there is any objection to making a full record. 

Can she be called back at any stage of the trance, or can 
she be awakened at any time, for example, by a shock? 
Mr. Dorr was uncertain with regard to this. He seemed 
to be of the opinion that she could be awakened at any 
stage by asking the controls to awaken her, but that if she 
were brought out of the trance by shock, as by any alarm- 
ing news, it would have a tendency to make it difficult for 
her to get into the trance next time and perhaps would 
make the trance lighter. He thought also that it might 
injure her health in the normal state, but of all this he 
could not speak positively since the thing has never actually 
happened. The control has oftentimes become highly 
offended with sitters, but never to the point of actually 
breaking off the sitting with them. 

Did any one ever try fraud or foolery with her, as, for 
example, bringing in a living person as if dead? Mr. Dorr 
says that many have tried foolery and sometimes have suc- 
ceeded splendidly, and other times have failed. Controls 
are very suggestible and very willing to take up any ideas 
presented by the sitters, so that they can be very easily 
taken in. 

Can the trance be made shorter or longer or deeper, and 
how? Mr. Myers, Mr. Dorr says, tried some experiments 
along this line. In one case he prolonged the trance for 
about four hours and a half, and she was then about three- 
quarters of an hour m coming out o± the trance, and he 
became very much alarmed for fear that she might not 
come out of it at all. The sittings formerly were longer 
than they are now. As said above, he thinks that she can 
be awakened at any time by appealing to her controls. 

Has Mrs. Piper 's husband ever returned to communicate 
202 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

with her? Mr. Dorr thought that he had come back once 
or twice or perhaps oftener when her daughter has been 
having a sitting. 

Why is it so much harder for her to come out of the 
trance than it is to get in? Mr. Dorr suggested that this 
was probably due to the fact that she was fatigued. 

What is the best way to make appointments with her? 
The way which has been usually followed is for the sitter 
to make the appointment with the control or with Hodg- 
son, of late years, and then after Mrs. Piper awakens to 
tell her what day has been set in order to find out whether 
it conflicts with other sittings. (Mrs. Piper in the waking 
state says expressly that she makes no appointments, mean- 
ing apparently that her waking self makes no appointments. 
But when Mr. Dorr is not present sitters apparently make 
appointments which are kept with the control.) 

Dr. Tanner was under the impression that Hodgson had 
been married when young and that his wife had died 
shortly afterward, but this, it proved, was not so. Dr. 
Hodgson had never been married, but was engaged when a 
young man, and his fiancee died. It was in connection with 
her that his interest in Spiritism was first aroused. One 
day on going to his room he had a vision of this girl, very 
distinct but lasting only a few moments, and on stumbling 
to the chair beside his desk he saw on his desk an envelope 
with a heavy black border, which proved to contain the 
news of the young girl's death. It was his conviction that 
it was her spirit whom he had seen, but we were left un- 
certain whether he believed that he had subconsciously seen 
the black-bordered envelope and reached the conclusion that 
she was dead first, or whether he believed that the vision 
came before even his subconscious mind received any in- 
formation about the letter. 

This throws extremely interesting light upon Hodgson's 
attitude with regard to Spiritism. From the published rec- 
ords one would get the impression that Hodgson was at the 

203 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

beginning an utter sceptic on such things, and was even 
unsympathetic in his attitude toward those who believed 
in them, whereas this shows that from the beginning he had 
tendencies in that direction, and was therefore not so un- 
compromisingly critical as he might otherwise have been. 

Before the coming on of the trance Dr. Hall made a 
little speech in which he said to Mrs. Piper that we had a 
very carefully studied out plan, and he hoped that she 
would not object if he asked her various questions. She 
replied that he could ask her any questions he chose, and 
she seemed very willing to answer them. Dr. Hall said that 
of course all of us hold that the soul survives death. We 
all have a horror of annihilation, and we cannot but believe 
in immortality, and that being the case, all the differences 
are minor differences. 

At this point Mr. Dorr interrupted and asked whether 
Dr. Hall made that as a statement of his own personal 
belief, and whether Dr. Tanner did. Dr. Tanner said that 
she was not certain that she would state it in quite the way 
Dr. Hall did, and Dr. Hall replied that he had been brought 
up in Puritan fashion, and that for himself he did believe 
in the soul's survival. There was considerable talk at this 
point about his Puritan ancestry and Mr. Dorr's, and Mrs. 
Piper told an anecdote about a friend of hers, who heard 
various other people boast of their ancestry, and said that 
her own great-grandfather was second cousin to the person 
who is never mentioned in polite society. We returned 
then to the point, and Dr. Hall asked Mrs. Piper if she 
personally believed that our deceased relatives survive and 
are interested in our welfare, to which she replied with 
considerable feeling that she really did think so. 

Second, he asked her if she read spiritistic literature, 
such as the Banner of Life and the Beligio-Philosophical 
Journal, and if she attended spiritistic meetings and seances 
and consulted mediums. She replied, as if somewhat indig- 
nant, that she never did and never had read spiritistic lit- 

204 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

erature, that she had never attended seances regularly, 
and that even when she went to consult Cocke, the blind 
medium, about her tumour, she did not attend his circle 
except on one occasion. She enlarged upon this at consid- 
erable length, evidently feeling somewhat indignant that 
Dr. Hall should even suppose that she would connect her- 
self with the common level of Spiritists. Mr. Dorr men- 
tioned again that she had, however, read all the published 
proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research. 

Third, Dr. Hall then asked her if she was ever guided in 
critical choices by her controls. She said that she never had 
believed much that lost articles could be found by consulting 
the controls, and this she did not do ; but when Dr. Hodgson 
was alive, whenever possible, he consulted the controls with 
regard to her health and other matters of her living, such as 
going on trips, etc., and since his death her daughters, at 
the sittings which they have, consult the controls sometimes 
for the same purpose. She also said that she does have 
premonitions and warnings in a vague way, especially with 
regard to illness. She has oftentimes felt unaccountably 
depressed at such times, and she especially cited the time 
before her daughters came down with the measles, when 
she was depressed and out of spirits for days beforehand, 
and the doctor said that he had never seen such bad attacks 
with anybody as with her daughters, and that they were 
very dangerous. 

As a rule, she says, she only dreams when she has indi- 
gestion, but she has on at least two occasions had dreams 
that she believes came true. One of these was while in the 
hospital after one of her operations, and related to condi- 
tions in the hospital which afterward came out as her dream 
did ; and on the night of Hodgson 's death she dreamed of a 
man 's entering a tunnel. She did not see his face, although 
he had a beard something like Hodgson 's. She was greatly 
terrified by the dream, and was awakened by it, and told 
her daughter about it. They did not hear of Hodgson's 

205 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

death until about half-past nine that morning, and then 
she at once connected her dream with him. She had never 
had any tendencies to sleep-walking and so on. 

Fourth, messages sometimes come in the trance for peo- 
ple who are not present or who are not known to her. 
Asked as to whether she did not feel after waking a sense 
of responsibility for these undelivered messages, she said 
that she never did. But this is very natural because such 
messages have always been taken care of by Mr. Hodgson 
when he was alive, or now by Mr. Dorr, and it is possible 
that the complete break between the trance and the waking 
stage has been encouraged through her having always a 
manager on hand. If her secondary personality were left 
like Miss Beauchamp's without anybody to carry out its 
desires, might it not after a time make itself felt in her 
waking state? 

Fifth, she was also asked as to whether, after a long 
interval without sittings, she tends spontaneously to go into 
trance, but she said that she did not, and she did not seem 
to have any feeling that the trances tended to come at regu- 
lar intervals or in any rhythmic order. Nevertheless, we 
ought to examine into this somewhat more, because it would 
seem altogether likely from our knowledge of other cases 
of secondary personality that there is some rhythm about 
the onset of the trance state. May it not be that her dis- 
inclination to give sittings the latter part of the week 
indicates some such rhythm? 

Sixth, she says that she has never received any tele- 
pathic messages either from living or dying people in her 
normal state. 

Seventh, Dr. Hall then entered upon a series of ques- 
tions designed to find out whether she was predominantly 
ear-minded or eye-minded. She said that she remembers 
faces a great deal better than she does names, that she is 
very poor at names. She also says she is very fond of 
music and susceptible to voices, but she is also very fond 

206 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

of pictures, and she believes that she can match colours 
from memory. If she had to choose between a concert and 
a picture gallery she says she would find it very diffi- 
cult to make a choice, but she would go to an opera far 
sooner than she would go to a theatre, this, of course, 
because the opera appeals both to the eye and to the ear 
more than the theatre does. It also came out that she 
is unusually fond of nature and appreciative of scenery. 
Mr. Dorr said that some time ago she visited him at Bar 
Harbor, and that he thought he had never had anybody 
there who appreciated the beauties of the place so much 
as she did. 

Eighth, Dr. Hall tried to explain to her about the feeling 
of deja vu. She recognised what he meant, but said that 
she herself has it practically not at all. One of her daugh- 
ters has it very much, and is always referring to it. Even 
in reading the Proceedings she said that she never had any 
feeling that she had ever heard of any of the things there 
recorded. 

Ninth, Dr. Hall then asked her various questions de- 
signed to find out whether the eye-centres are easily shunted 
off from the main work of the brain. We found that she 
goes to sleep very easily, and sleeps readily and heavily; 
but when asked as to whether at any time in her life she 
had acquired the habit of sleeping lightly, with her ear 
open, as it were, she was very positive that she never had. 
She never was obliged to stay awake when her children 
were babies because she always had a nurse, and she never 
took care of anybody through a long illness when she had 
to be awake at night a great deal. 

Tenth, various interesting facts came out with regard to 
her age and early trance states. When she was sixteen 
she had the accident with the ice-sled, and at that time 
she was struck, not on the head but on the knee, and was 
also internally injured, the doctors supposed. At any rate, 
not long after this the ovarian tumour developed. Her 

207 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

first child was born May 16, 1884, and her first trance came 
June 29th, about six weeks later. She was then about 
twenty-five years old. Her second child was born sixteen 
months later, and the first operation, in which the diseased 
Fallopian tubes and ovaries were removed, came in the 
spring of 1893. At that time the physicians thought that 
the tumour probably was caused originally by the accident 
with the sled, but they could not say certainly because the 
birth of the children might have had something to do 
with it. 

This conversation with Mrs. Piper lasted nearly three- 
quarters of an hour, and it was 11 : 15 before we said we were 
through with our questions and ready for the trance. At 
11 : 18 she showed signs of drowsiness and began to pass into 
the trance with much the same symptoms as before. At 11 : 24 
her pulse was 84 and breathing 14 and the right hand was 
twitching. At 11 : 27 the hand began to write without a pen- 
cil, after groping vainly for one, but when a pencil was given 
it, it began anew with the usual greeting: 

-|- Hail. We return once more to earth with peace and 
love. + (R.) 

Do you wish me to bring Hodgson since he is [This was 
illegibly written and repetition was called for.] Do you wish 
me to bring Hodgson? He is anxious to meet you. (R.) 

(Yes.) 

[The hand then clutches the influences tightly, marking 
the advent of Hodgson.] 

Hello. I am glad to meet you once more. How is every- 
thing? Did you get my 

(Can you bring back Bessie Beals once more?) 

Yes, I go, I'll go and find her. She will doubtless be con- 
scious of your desires presently. Desires. Are you getting 
thoroughly worked out in your mind about my existence and 
others' Existence [A disconnected word follows here that 
may be Rah, Rae, or Rob. It can hardly be R. H] Dick. 
Rob. 

(Who is Rob?) 

208 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

Rob. Yes. Wait and see. Hello, are you there 
I am glad to see you. Are you trying to waken me, Uncle R, 
are you trying to waken me — yes, waken me. I am not dead 
really and am conscious of all you did to help me. 

(Who is Uncle R?) 

You do not UD. Wait and it will come out clearly. This 
gentleman is helping me greatly. 

(What gentleman?) 

Hodgson. He is teaching me how to speak with you. Did 
you give mother my message? 

(First part of that sentence again, please.) 

Did you give mother my message or are you waiting for 
more? 

(I told her, and she was very grateful and happy to get it, 
and says that she knows the girls you told about, and that she 
wants to meet you here some day.) 

[Hand thumps the table.] 

Good, that is just what I want. I would be the happiest 
of girls to speak with my dear mother, but Uncle to 

me. Do you remember Latin — Latin. Was I not grateful 
always? I want to help and I am 

really alive. 

(Your mother wants to know if you get angry now, and if 
you are well?) 

I said no before. I am well and happy. I said you UD 
Latin and did it signify my meaning of thanks to you? 

(You remember your Latin then ? Now let me say — ' Arma 
virumque — ' Can you give the next word?) 

Give me time and let me UD the significance of my coming 
here and I will answer all your questions every one. Do you 
remember telling me I was [not] fitted by temperament to 
teach — [short indistinguishable word] fitted by temperament to 
teach, teach. I was too nervous but that nervousness 
it was little UD. 

(Well, thank you very much for coming, Bessie. Now, can 
you bring Hodgson back again?) 

Yes, and I will think up my other experiences to tell you 
when I return. God help you and keep you well. Love to 
mother. 

209 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

(Now, I should like to ask you two or three questions, 
Hodgson. Are you there, Hodgson?) 

[The hand cramps intensely and violently, and writes very 
heavily.] Of course I am. I never left. O. K. Fire away. 

(I want to talk to you a little, Hodgson, and ask you a 
few questions. Can you tell me what Mrs. Piper is doing 
now?) 

She is talking to -f- 

(Rector?) 

Yes. 

(What is her address?) 

What — what do you think I am anyway? I can't tell you 
where she lives. I think she is in America. 

(Did you ever try to come back through any other medium ?) 

Yes indeed, I have tried many times, but to my sorrow 
in some. 

(Do you come back through Rector, or are you talking 
directly to me?) 

I am under the direction of -|- and Imperator, I S D. 
[Imperator, servus dei.] 

(Now, Hodgson, I knew Borst very well, and I must say I" 
am rather confused about you and him. You are so much 
like him that it almost seems to me that you are Borst. Can 
it be possible that you have made a mistake and that this is 
really Borst?) 

Good Lord, what are you talking about, Hall? Are you 
insane? I am Hodgson, Richard Hodgson, 15 Charles St. 

(Well, but you can't wonder I am a little confused. I knew 
Borst so well and you are so much like him. Are you sure you 
haven't got these babies mixed?) 

Stick to it if it pleases you. I am willing. Suppose you 
call me Borst and him Hodgson. 

(Well, I want you to tell me one thing, Borst. Aren't you 
convinced now that spiritualism, which you ridiculed so much, 
is true?) 

Of course I am. [Written very heavily, with a long pencil 
mark underneath.] I am as sure of my existence as you are 
of yours, and when I am done with you here you will UD bet- 
ter. Bundy. Bundy. B BUMBYBUMBY 

210 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(Who is Bumby?) 

And I am having great experiment to get her here. 

(Now, Borst — I'm going to call you Borst, you know — I 
wrote to your wife, and gave your messages to her and to 
Ernst and Emmeline. I haven't had time to hear from her 
yet, but I shall soon.) 

What are you talking about? I never sent any such 
messages. 

(Why, don't you remember? Last time you gave me those 
messages.) 

You must excuse me. I never did any such thing. 

(Well, Hodgson, didn't you know Borst?) 

Oh, yes. I will call him for you. You have got him mixed 
up, I think, with me. 

(Oh, but I think you have made the mistake and are really 
Borst. You are too much like him not to be Borst. You have 
made the mistake, not I.) 

Certainly not. I am Hodgson. I'll go out and find him 
for you. Good-bye. 

[Dr. Hall exclaims to Mr. Dorr, " But I don't want him to 
go. I want him to stay," and then, to the control,] 

(Don't go, Hodgson. . Please don't go yet.) 

I can't think what you mean. I had no wife. 

(Well, Hodgson, if it really is you, I'll take your word for 
it, for I want to ask you some more questions.) 

I think it will be better, if you want me to talk with you. 
Did you find Krebs? 

(No, I haven't found him yet.) 

Do you remember my telling you about a young clergyman 
who had light and who lived in Philadelphia? 

(I'll try to find him. Now, Hodgson, may I ask you one 
or two more questions?) 

Of course. 

(I want to ask you about Mrs. Piper. Does she really like 
to be a medium, do you think?) 

I'll find out for you. I'll ask Rector if he knows. — if he 
knows. 

(I wish you would. I'd like very much to know if she 
would like to stop if she could or if she really likes it.) 

211 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

[The hand seemed to be questioning, raising itself and 
bowing and questioning.] 

I will have to find out at some future time. He is looking 
after the machine now. Hall, I am very sorry I could not 
have — Hall, I am sorry I could not have managed things better 
with you. 

(You have done very well, Hodgson. But, could it not all 
be expressed as secondary personality, instead of your own 
self?) 

Not in the slightest. I know definitely what I am, and I 
was not so wrong in my theories after all. I do not pretend 
to move mountains or seas, either, but I do know I am R. H. 
and I have met John H. and George P. both. Suppose you 
accept the truth for the time being and just believe I am 
Hodgson. We should get on just as well. 

(All right, I will. I told you I would.) 

I can UD far better than you would ever be willing to give 
me credit for doing, far better — or doing — I am not in the least 
less intelligent here. 

(I wish you could tell me a little more of what Mrs. Piper 
is doing.) 

I would gladly, but there is nothing to tell really. 

(Hodgson, Dr. Hall would like to know what the spirit of 
Mrs. Piper is doing on that side.) [Dorr.] 

She first passed over on her ethereal cord and is being held 
here by I. D. S. + — held. 

(Is her spirit conscious over there?) [Dorr.] 

For a time but not all through. When it meets him it is 
conscious. 

(Is it happy?) 

Not unhappy by any means. Not unhappy by any means. 
Correct. 

(Does she enjoy coming back or is it painful?) 

I do not know really but I think she would prefer remain- 
ing here when the power ceases. 

(Will you tell me a little now about Mrs. Piper's body, 
where she is, what she is doing, etc.?) 

Ask me anything you wish about it. I see a body filled 
with ether, to which an ethereal cord is attached. 

212 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(May I give you some more words now for reactions?) 

Yes, but I wish you would speak a little more distinctly 
than last time and slowly. 

[Reactions followed at this point. See Appendix.] 

(Now, what does Borst suggest to you?) 

Your friend whom you took me for. 

(Yes, but what does he remind you of?) 

Capital fellow. 

(What does Phinuit suggest?) 

Spirit. 

(The Watseka girl?) 

No good. 

(Well, can you tell me whether you can see the things in 
this room, as, for instance, Dr. Tanner's dress?) 

Oh, no. I can simply see a light, her ethereal body only. 

(You couldn't tell how many fingers I have open, or any- 
thing of that sort, could you?) 

I never tried. I will if you like. I don't like conditions 
in your room. 

[The window is opened.] 

They blind me very much. I I will try. 

(All right. How many fingers have I open?) 

I could not tell you, for I only see one. 

(Can you see colors?) 

Not on your side clearly. i 

(No, but on your side?) 

Colors? Oh, certainly. Hall, you are in a dream. 

(Do you see pictures or faces over there?) 

Oh — Oh, distinctly. Hello, George. 

(Yes, I'm here.) [Dorr.] 

(Do you have music over there, too? Can you see most or 
hear most?) 

You see and hear both equally well. 

(But you don't see things here, in this room?) 

Not at the moment while I am in the act of communicating. 

(Can you tell me whether you see or hear most over there ?) 

Equally well both. 

(Do you sleep or dream over there?) 

No, we are spirits, not 

213 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

(Do you take pleasure in coming back here?) 

I do if I can help identify myself sufficiently to help hu- 
manity or the world — if I can identify myself sufficiently. 

(What do you do over there? How do you spend your 
time?) 

I am as active in our psychical work as you are there or 
as I ever was. 

(Can you tell me any new things you have found out over 
there?) 

Yes. I will give you an idea of what I have experienced 
on your side, but it will take time. 

(Mrs. Eddy — what does she suggest?) 

[Hand hesitates.] Don't 

(Oliver Lodge?) 

My friend of 

(Rule Britannia, Britannia Rule — what's next?) 

Queen. 

(Arma virumque ) 

All right. 

(Tuusque tandem ) 

Life. 

(Madam Blavatsky.) 

Suffering spirit. Reformation of soul. All 

[Appointment was then made for the following Tuesday. 

At this point, according to previous agreement, Dr. Tanner 
left the room and after a minute returned, and whispered into 
Dr. Hall's ear that a gas pipe was leaking in the other room, 
but that it was being fixed, and it would be better not to tell 
Mrs. Piper. Dr. Hall then told the hand, and said he would 
better not tell Mrs. Piper, but that when she came out of the 
trance she would want to see to it at once herself. It was 
hoped that this would serve as a post-hypnotic suggestion. A 
nod to Mr. Dorr showed him that this was a test. 

When the hand was told, it at once wrote, with many 
abbreviations :] 

I want you, George, if anything is wrong fix it. 

[Mr. Dorr made no move, and again:] 

George, if anything is wrong go fix it. 

[Mr. Dorr then went to the door, and opened and closed it, 

214 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

remaining in the room and stepping quietly back to his place. 
Presently some movement or word made the control conscious 
that Mr. Dorr was still there and the hand began to write, 
very agitatedly,] 

Do not deceive me unless you wish to be deceived. — Do 
not — if you deceive you will suffer, if you deceive. I dislike 
it exceedingly and shall refuse to return if you continue, if 
you continue to deceive. I it. You cannot deceive 

me in the slightest. 

[Various protestations are made.] 

Good-bye. I am sorry you did this, I am very you did this, 
sorry you did this. 

[Air. Dorr at this point tries to explain the matter to Hodg- 
son, and unfortunately tells him that we were trying to give 
a post-hypnotic suggestion, thus destroying any chance of its 
working. But to some degree he mollifies the control, who 
writes :] 

I UD, but I do not see how it serves, but if you do all right, 
better not trifle with the light. 

[Reiteration of the appointment followed.] 

(We shall come then second after coming?) 

Perhaps. 

(Why, is not that right?) 

Wait and see. We are going now. Good-bye, Hall. Hope 
you are wiser than before. R. H. 

[Dr. Hall thanks Hodgson again for all his trouble and 
patience.] 

Do not trouble. I am happy as ever. Good-bye. Adieu. 

-f- We cease now and may the blessings of God rest on 
you+ (R.) 

SUBLIMINAL 

The writing ceased at once, when the pulse was 78 and 
breathing 12. The head had begun to rise a little with each 
breath. Talking began at 1 : 06 : 

Hello, Joe father father and I are coming all 

right with me — [many words lost here]. I see mother my 

dear O-o-o-oh 

[At 1 : OS Dr. Hall tested the sensitiveness of the right and 

215 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

left hands by pressing rather heavily with his pencil point, but 
got no response.] 

Good-bye good-bye going [pained expression, al- 
most crying]. 

(Do you see anything?) 

Cross light aches — aches. 

(Where?) 

Aches. 

(What aches?) 

[She touches her arm and hand, but not where the pencil 
pressed.] 

[Looking at Dorr.] Don't like you O-o-oh, it's a room. 

[Looking at Dr. Tanner intently.] Yes. Owl's eyes. [Again 
looking at Dr. Tanner, who asks if she knows her.] 

Oh, I know you. 1 think you're writing down questions 

for a gentleman asked me. 

(Do you know my name?) [Tanner.] 

No, I've never been introduced. [She had been of course 
and had heard the name repeatedly.] 

Did you hear my head snap? 

The conversation then became general and no notes were 
taken on it. Mrs. Piper says that she does not feel refreshed 
after her trance, and in fact has no characteristic feeling. It 
does not make her more tired, nor does it affect her sleep unless 
it comes too frequently. She never has any idea of how long 
it has lasted, and of course she had no idea what time it then 
was. It was then about 1 : 30. We had been with her for 
full three hours, but the trance itself lasted only from 11 : 15 
to 1:00. 

COMMENTS ON THIRD SITTING 

The latter part of this sitting was due to an imperfectly 
thought-out plan that we had formed for testing Hodg- 
son's suggestibility. Looking back upon it now, it is very 
evident that we did not lead up gradually enough to the 
idea that he was mistaken in his own identity, nor realise 
that, however suggestible a secondary personality may be, 
after it has been in training for twenty-odd years on one 

216 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

hypothesis it will not change to another off-hand, especially 
to one which would put it out of existence forthwith. 

Assuming that the Hodgson control is only one phase 
of Mrs. Piper's secondary personality, let us try to see how 
it could come to believe in itself as Hodgson. 

We have on record various cases of the birth of sec- 
ondary personalities, such as Mrs. Verrall's, described later, 
and Miss Beauchamp's, described in Prince's book, the 
" Dissociation of a Personality." In such cases, the per- 
sonality is at first very shapeless, and the utterances are 
fragmentary, nonsensical, etc. But by degrees, in response 
to the questionings of the sitter or of the person's own self- 
consciousness, the secondary personality gives itself a name, 
and sometimes a birth place and family history, and when 
confronted with falsities and contradictions in its account 
of itself it shifts, evades, etc., very much as Phinuit did. 
But the point of especial importance here is, that the form 
which the personality takes depends upon the environment 
into which it has come, the attitude taken toward it by the 
person and her friends, etc. 

We have already noted that in Mrs. Piper's case her 
surroundings favoured strongly the development of her sec- 
ondary personality according to the spiritistic hypothesis, 
and that Phinuit was very similar to the control of the 
ordinary medium in his characteristics. We have also noted 
the emergence and development of the Pelham control and 
the Imperator group along the lines desired by the Re- 
searchers. We need only carry this a step further to under- 
stand that it is inevitable that as various Researchers die 
they will appear at Mrs. Piper's sittings, especially those 
whom she knew best and who were most inclined to believe 
in her. So we find Myers, an ardent Spiritist, and one 
profoundly impressed by Mrs. Piper, taking the manage- 
ment of what might be called the educational tests, while 
Dr. Sidgwick, who seems to have been of a much more 
cautious and sceptical temperament than Myers, has not as 
17 217 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

yet made an appearance in any published record of Mrs. 
Piper 's sittings, nor has Gurney, whom Mrs. Piper did not, 
I think, know. 

In all these cases, whatever may have been the private 
doubts of the Researchers, the attitude toward the control 
has been deliberately one of sympathy and confidence, be- 
cause in this way, it has been believed, the best messages 
could be obtained. The effect upon the controls, therefore, 
especially since the Pelham sittings of 1892-1893, has been 
to give them ever-increasing confidence in their own exist- 
ence independent of Mrs. Piper. Everything in the sit- 
tings, even the criticisms, proceeds upon the assumption 
that these personalities are real selves, and, being in reality 
only the products of suggestion, how can they escape be- 
lieving in themselves just as others do, especially since, 
down at the bottom of Mrs. Piper's subconscious mind, 
must be the conviction that her living and reputation de- 
pend upon acceptance of the controls as spirits. 

We get into strange mazes here. From this standpoint 
the controls are really honest in making their claims, but 
are mistaken, and the Hodgson control is one of the best 
illustrations of this sincere mistake. We know that for 
many years before his death the germ had probably lain 
dormant in the medium's mind that after Hodgson's death 
he would appear and take control of her as others had done 
before. Now Hodgson dies, suddenly, and that night, be- 
fore learning of his death, Mrs. Piper had a terrifying 
dream of a man killed in a railroad tunnel, with a beard 
like Hodgson's. The next morning she hears of the death, 
and at once believes that her dream was a telepathic one. 
This strengthens her deep-lying conviction that Hodgson 
will return. Eight days later, at the sitting of a close 
friend of Hodgson's, when Rector was writing, the hand 
suddenly dropped the pencil, worked convulsively, and then 
wrote the letter " H," breaking the pencil point with the 
heavy pressure, and then, " Hodgson." 

218 



THIRD SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

" God bless you! " exclaimed Miss Pope, the sitter. 
The hand then wrote, " I am Hodgson," and when Miss 
Pope asked, " Is this my friend? " assented by rapping 
five times. Rector then explained that Hodgson could not 
stay longer this first time, and referred to a ring. 

Thus the Hodgson control was born, and thereafter he 
appeared at nearly every sitting and rapidly gained co- 
herence, though Professor James says frankly that he has 
not been able to give really evidential tests that it is Hodg- 
son, and we have already seen that while in England, out 
of the sphere of Mrs. Piper's possible knowledge, he did 
not recognise his own friends. If she could be taken to 
Australia probably the case would be still worse. 

But just here I wish to emphasise the joy and belief 
with which he was greeted at his first appearance, and the 
fact that the policy has constantly been to seem to believe 
him. This has not been the case with most secondary 
personalities, nor even with some of the Piper controls. 
Phinuit was permanently retired, Pelham was doubted a 
long time. Sally Beauchamp fought stoutly for her exist- 
ence before agreeing to commit psychic suicide. 

This originally amorphous self then has, from the very 
beginning, been trained in the belief that it is a spirit 
manifestation, so that it is entirely possible if not probable 
that it itself accepts the belief. Such a hypothesis is natu- 
rally much more grateful to the secondary personality than 
Prince's, with its consequent suppression and repression, 
because it exalts the subconsciousness and encourages its 
inroads upon the normal self. It does its best, therefore, to 
live up to the demands made upon it, not from any rea- 
soned-out plan, but with the blind instinct of the most rudi- 
mentary life to grow, and expand, rather than painfully to 
remain inactive and atrophy. Nourished by the sympathy 
and suggestion of the sitters, it has grown apace, and it is 
an open question now whether the twenty-odd years of 
training have not given it so much memory and sense of 

219 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

individuality and independence that disbelief in it and dis- 
couragement of it would have little effect, even if they 
came from sitters of long standing. 

From this standpoint, it is surprising to note the com- 
parative meekness with which the control submitted to our 
various experiments and to our final revelations of his fail- 
ures. He did, indeed, get very angry two or three times, 
but it was the anger that blusters and threatens, not the 
natural impatience and irritation which a man like Hodg- 
son might feel for sceptics whom he could not convince. 

One characteristic thing about this sitting is the number 
of feelers thrown out. There are the doubtful words : Rah 
or Rae, Dick, Rob, Uncle R., Bumby, another reference to 
Krebs, John H — and George P — , and in the subliminal, 
Joe. If we were inclined to believe in spirits we might say 
that Rob is Dr. Hall's son, and Uncle R. his Uncle Robert, 
for whom he was named. It is quite probable that Uncle R. 
was there at the sitting, and that he was the one who sum- 
moned Bessie, for Bessie says when she first appears, " Are 
you trying to waken me, Uncle R. 1 ' ' Of course the sceptic 
will say that in the next sentence she is evidently talking 
to Dr. Hall, but to this Hyslop would answer that we do 
not appreciate the lifelikeness of the dialogue. Bessie says 
the first sentence to Uncle R. in the spirit world, then she 
turns — if spirits can turn — and addresses herself in the 
next to Dr. Hall on this side. 



CHAPTER XIII 
SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: FOURTH SITTING 

Mr. Dorr was out of town this time, and so we con- 
ducted the sitting ourselves and had no trouble. We had 
first a long talk with Mrs. Piper of fully an hour, in which 
we felt that we really got somewhat acquainted with her 
herself. It was impossible to take full notes of this, but the 
gist of it is as follows : 

The conversation drifted to her own feelings about her 
trance, and she said that when it first began she fought 
against it, partly because she thought that it might indicate 
hysteria or some other abnormality, and partly because it 
felt disagreeable. She used to have sensations of falling 
whenever she went into it that made her afraid, but now 
she does not have them. In coming out there is a stage 
of exhilaration, followed by one of depression. There 
seems to have been a period of some years in the early days 
when she was not sure to what her trance was to be 
attributed. 

She also feels that the conditions under which she was 
placed at this time were unfavourable to the best develop- 
ment of the trance. She and her husband were living with 
his parents, and her father-in-law was an ardent spiritual- 
ist, and urged her to go to seances and to develop her 
power. She thinks that the Phinuit personality came as the 
result of her surroundings. She never liked him, and this 
was one reason why she hated to go into the trance. She 
is uncertain what Phinuit was, but is sure that he was not 
a secondary personality. She thinks that perhaps he is 
some spirit who never was in the body, and who has little 

221 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

power on the other side. The change to the Pelham and 
Imperator personalities seems to have been coincident with 
her reaching the conviction that the trance was good, and 
that she was in truth a medium. 

Dr. Hall asked various questions designed to find out 
how her mind works in every-day life. She thinks that in 
coming to an important decision she does differently at 
different times, but sometimes she does decide on the im- 
pulse of the moment. For instance, she may make up her 
mind suddenly to take a journey, put on her hat and start 
off at once. Similarly she says that she comes to conclu- 
sions about people in different ways, but she does make 
up her mind quickly and on slight grounds. For instance, 
she says that if she is in a room full of people, talking to 
some one, she may overhear others talking, and she will 
make up her mind at once that she will like one person and 
dislike another, on account of their voices. She feels that 
she can tell by the voice whether a person is sincere or not, 
and she has said before that she is very sensitive to voices. 

This is very significant in its bearing on the trance, and 
may be one of the important avenues by Which to connect 
the trance and normal states. The control now gets all his 
knowledge of the sitter through the ear, and if Mrs. Piper 
gets many of her impressions similarly, and especially of 
her likes and dislikes, it is interesting to know it. 

She says also that she has, naturally enough, been made 
rather suspicious of people by her experiences as a medium, 
meeting insincerity, arrogance, and so on, and that only 
her firm faith in God has made it possible for her to endure 
all that she has had to. She spoke with much feeling here, 
and referred to insincerity at various times, saying that 
in some cases sitters had tried to deceive the trance per- 
sonalities, and had also pretended to her that they were 
believers when they were not. 

I asked her if it was necessary to be a believer in order 
to get good results, and she said of course not, and I then 

222 



FOURTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

asked a question as to how much experimenting might be 
done with the trance personalities, in answer to which she 
said that anything could be tried. The point was made 
along here, that if we explained either to the controls or 
to her what we were trying to get we should spoil the re- 
sults, and she virtually gave us carte blanche to do as we 
pleased. 

Nevertheless, I feel quite confident that she cherishes 
resentment against persons who have tried — perhaps suc- 
cessfully — to deceive the controls, and naturally enough, 
because it must shake her faith in the controls besides mak- 
ing her conscious that it lays herself open to the charge 
of being an impostor. 

In this connection, too, came up the question of sec- 
ondary personalities, and the opinion that various people 
had held with regard to the trance. I said that I had not 
adopted the spiritistic hypothesis and did not know that 
I should, and there was considerable talk about the theory 
of secondary personalities. Dr. Hall told at some length 
about two other mediums, and asked Mrs. Piper if she did 
not think that he had done wisely in advising one to give 
up mediumship. She said very frankly that if she kept 
on she might become insane, and cited the case of a daugh- 
ter of a friend in England who wanted to cultivate auto- 
matic writing, but whose mother was afraid to have her. 
She also gave the case of a young girl known to a certain 
psychologist who seems to have become possessed by it, but 
fought against it, and was advised by him to let it come. 
I asked her about Miss Verrall and she seemed to think 
that she was well enough balanced to stand it, and re- 
ferred to herself as being well balanced, and so able to stand 
it, too. 

We then turned to talk of her future. Dr. Hall asked 
her if she had any desire to give up the work, and if she 
was not glad when summer came and she could take a vaca- 
tion. He spoke also of spring depression, and she said 

223 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

that she always felt that very much, and the only way that 
she could overcome it was by taking long walks and staying 
in the fresh air as much as possible. She seems to be very 
sensitive to this need of air, and this suggests that there 
may be some close connection between her breathing and 
her trance. 

With regard to her future, the controls have said at 
various times that " the light " may fail at any time, and 
so she looks forward to a time when she will no longer be 
able to do this work. She does not know whether the power 
will fail suddenly or gradually, but until it does go she 
expects to continue at it, apparently believing very sin- 
cerely that she has a mission to perform which she must 
not shirk even though it is at times disagreeable. She is 
very glad when summer comes, for then she gets into the 
country for four or five months and does nothing of this 
sort at all. 

We also referred to the cross-correspondence messages, 
for which Mrs. Piper seems to have an admiration almost 
amounting to awe. Dr. Hall recalled to her Dr. James's 
saying that she was his white crow, and had made science 
prostrate in the dust so far as he was concerned, which evi- 
dently pleased her greatly. 

Dr. Hall asked her whether she had any preference for 
one class of sitters over another, to which she replied that 
she never knew beforehand what they came for, though 
often after the sittings they told her what they had re- 
ceived. She said that it made no difference to her what 
they wanted. 

When in England last time she tried crystal gazing a 
little, and saw in the crystal a man being run over. On her 
return to New York, while she and her daughters were 
driving up the pier, they saw a cab pass over the leg of a 
man, which made her think that this was what the crystal 
was foretelling. She has not practised crystal gazing much, 
and gave no other examples. 

224 



FOURTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

Dr. Hall also tried to hypnotise Mrs. Piper, who said 
she was very anxious to try it, but did not succeed. 

At the end, reference was made to the attitude of many 
people, and especially of the Catholic Church, toward Spir- 
itism. Dr. Hall told her that this church has been sending 
out lecturers against it as a special child of the Devil. This 
seemed both to disturb and anger Mrs. Piper, and, as the 
first sleepiness of the trance began to come on, she told him, 
in rather an angry tone, to bring ' ' that priest ' ' to see her. 
She also reverted to the theory of secondary personality, 
as if it disturbed her to think that I, or we, were inclined 
to it, and asked if, in that case, all these things were just 
her own self " cavorting around." She also asked why 
her head always feels heavy when she begins to go into the 
trance. 

[She began to go into the trance at 11 : 32 and her head 
dropped to the pillow at 11 : 41. At 11 : 42 the hand began 
writing without a pencil, " Hail," and when given a pencil 
continued,] 

We greet you once again with peace and joy. -}- (R.) 

(Is Hodgson there, or can you bring him?) 

Prudens will. I'll send him. Prudens. 

[The hand then cramped violently to the shoulder, and 
wrote :] 

Tell Hall I'm here again. Glad to see you. I am here the 
same Hodgson himself. 

(Hodgson, I'm very glad to see you again. I want 
to ) 

I was very much annoyed with you before because of your 
rapid speech and persistent [pause] doubt [pause] with regard 
to my identity. What on earth do you think I am doing, 
anyway ? 

(That's all right, Hodgson. I think I've got over that now. 
Now, I want to ask you to write very plainly and slowly to-day, 
for Mr. Dorr is not here and we cannot read the writing well. 
[The hand bows assent and understanding.] Now, last time 
you recognised that Mr. Dorr was here, and you seem to know 

225 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

what people are here. Can you tell me what people are here 
now?) 

I see another light. Resembles light. Resembles a lady, 
lady. 

(Can you tell me how that lady looks? How she is dressed? 
Anything at all?) 

No, not at the moment. I would be obliged to go out and 
get a look at her from a distance. 

(Distance ?) 

I said so. Hall, I am really R. Hodgson. I am not here 
for any frivolous talk, frivolous talk. I can help you here to 
help you to know the truth.) 

(Yes, Hodgson, and that is what I am after, too. Now, I 
want you to tell me something about Mrs. Piper, the normal 
not the spirit Mrs. Piper; where she lives, what about her 
daughters, and so on.) 

I cannot tell you anything, cannot tell, cannot [In 

answer to a question as to what a certain word was — ] I never 
used poor language. I cannot tell, cannot tell you anything 
about her. 

(Tell me about her spirit then: where it is and what it is 
doing.) 

-J- It has been removed over the ethereal cord and is being 
held by -|- i. s. d. 

(Well, Hodgson, the last time you found Bessie, my niece, 
and Borst. Now, how did you find them among so many? 
That has always troubled me.) 

I summoned our chief messenger, Prudens, chief, chief. He 
went at once and went through the throng calling for Miss 
Beals, when a young woman heard his call and responded, com- 
ing back with him to the open window. 

(Now, when you found Bessie, she spoke of Uncle Robert. 
Can you tell me anything of that?) 

She said, "If my Uncle is really here, he will UD what 
that means." 

(I see. Very good. But can't you tell me something about 
Uncle Robert?) 

You seemed not to recognize it, much to her distress. You 
seemed 

226 



FOURTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(No, but I do now, very clearly, and I think it is one of 
the most important things that has come out.) 

She also said [illegible word] to which you paid no atten- 
tion. Said [illegible word]. 

(Latin?) 

Yes, about your Latin. You quoted, quoted some Latin 
from iEneid which she replied to but you paid no atten- 
tion to it. 

[Dr. Hall had quoted arma virumque in the course of the 
third sitting, to Hodgson, but he gave no answer at all.] 

(Yes, very well, but now, won't you tell me something about 
Uncle Robert, who he was and what he did?) 

She brought him to you and was telling him of your pres- 
ence. He is and you UD. 

(Where did he live and what was his last name?) 

Bay Hall. 

(Where did he live?) 

Bay. 

(Back Bay?) [Possibly bag.] 

Oh, no. Bay. 

(What was his business?) 

Book some crime, justice. 

(Crime?) 

Yes. Leg lame. 

(What does that mean? Leg lame?) 

Yes leg, right. 

(Lame in the right leg?) 

Yes, and leg, wasn't broken but rheumatism in body. 

(Anything about his nose? He broke his nose, really.) 

Yes. 

(Did he break his leg, too?) 

[Gesture of the hand signifying that he fell over backward.] 

I see [illegible word] is listening. 

(What is that word please?) 

Father. I see your father. [Hand points to Dr. Tanner.] 

(My father? Is my father here?) [Dr. Tanner.] 

I do. I do. Why don't you UD? I say I saw him. Saw 
him. 

(Is he living or dead?) 

227 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Dead, what are you talking about nothing ever dies really 
but he is in the spirit. 

(Now I've caught you, Hodgson. You're wrong. He is 
living.) 

I say he is living. Nothing ever dies I say. Dead, no such 
thing, no such thing. You do not UD. Catch me and you 
will catch a white blackbird. Blackbird. [Cf. with Dr. Hall's 
reference before the trance to James's phrase for Mrs. Piper, 
" white crow."] I am the most wide-awake creature you 
ever saw. 

(Yes, I see you are, Hodgson, but now I should like to 
have you tell me whether it is easy or difficult for you to come 
back. Is this hard work, or is it just play for you?) 

I never get tired. I lose, lose control owing to owing, 
OWING to evaporation of ether, ether, but fatigue is not 
known to me. Go on with your questions. I wanted to tell 
her a bit a bit about her father as I thought there was 
some reason for my doing so. However, time will explain 
Explain. 

(Yes. Now, I want to go back to Borst again, Hodgson. 
It really was not so strange that I mistook you for him, you 
are so like him.) 

Oh, nonsense, Hall, you were trying to place hypnotic sug- 
gestion to me. I know who I am perfectly well and I hope 
you will some day UD. If I do not meet you when you cross 
the bar my name is not Hodgson. 

(All right, Hodgson. My only doubt is whether you are 
not really Mrs. Piper's secondary personality, and I should like 
to have you give me some proof that you are not.) 

I am interested in seeing III am interested in seeing 
how many stories you can tell in a minute. They awfully 
bad. They are awful whoppers. They are awful whoppers. I 
never heard so many from one in a minute. 

(Well, perhaps that's so, Hodgson, but can't you give me 
a sign to show that you are not a split-off part of Mrs. Piper?) 

I see your sincerity underneath all this. I see I see all 
your sincerity underneath all this. 

[Then came three lines of faint dots and dashes at which 
we exclaimed in despair, and asked the control to write over, 

228 



FOURTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

as we could not read a word of it. After another line came 
the words:] 

My own shorthand. 

[At this point Dr. Tanner looking back at this thought 
that perhaps Hodgson might have taken refuge in profanity, 
and remarked to Dr. Hall with a laugh that it looked as if it 
might be the beginning of ' Hell and damnation.' Whereupon 
the hand went on,] 

Listen, Hall. Don't talk like that, it distresses me. 

[Dr. Hall thought that he was referring to the question of 
secondary personality and said something to the effect that 
he could not wonder that he was suspected, but the hand 
said,] 

No, what she said. 

[I said something to the effect that I was sorry that I had 
hurt his feelings and he went on:] 

No, I am only surprised and disappointed. 

(Disappointed ?) 

Yes. I am really serious and no part of Mrs. Piper's ma- 
chine. I assure you I was on the right track before I left 
the body. 

(Well, now, Hodgson, you hear wonderfully well, and you 
see, too. You knew that Mr. Dorr had not gone out of the 
room last week, and you felt that the window ought to be 
opened. You really can smell, can't you?) 

No, I could not really. I do not claim more than I can do. 

(Then how did you know that the room was close?) 

I saw the ether going saw the ether and knew it was because 
of the conditions on your side. 

(But you hear perfectly well, through Mrs. Piper's hand?) 

Yes. Do anything you like and should hear just the 
same . . Yes. Do anything you like and I shall hear just 
the same. 

(Can you smell?) 

No. Do not claim to. 

(Nor taste?) 

No. 

(Would you feel it if Mrs. Piper was hurt?) 

I should not, no. I should not, no. But I would not hurt 

229 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the machine if, machine, machine, if I were you it might 
suffer, suffer, after I have gone. 

[We assured him warmly that we had no intention of hurt- 
ing Mrs. Piper, and then Dr. Hall went on solicitously,] 

(Now, Hodgson, I have been very much annoyed at the way 
some people have treated Mrs. Piper. They have annoyed her 
greatly. Can't you suggest some way to stop it?) 

Annoying Mrs. Piper? 

(Yes, by printing things about her and so on. Can't you 
tell me how to stop it?) 

Yes, as I did. 

(Yes, but how did you do?) 

I fought for her. 

(Yes, but just what shall we do?) 

Follow my example. 

(Yes. Well, now, Hodgson, which kind of sitters do you 
like best, those who come investigating, like myself, or those 
who wish to come into communication with their dead friends ?) 

Bot Don't say dead Both. Both. 

(But which would you rather have come?) 

Both. I like to help everybody everybody anyone who is 
really worthy. 

(Yes. Well, now, I have a very important question to 
ask you.) 

Fire away. 

(It seems that in all the history of spiritualism, way back 
to earliest Greek times, a man always comes through a woman 
medium and a woman through a man medium. A table has 
been drawn up showing this. Now, why is that so?) 

There is no real reason for it I think. It simply happens 
so. Curiously. 

(Yes, but there must be some reason for it, Hodgson, and 
you ought to know.) 

I'll look into and reply later. 

(Very well, Hodgson. Now, I suppose sex lives over there, 
doesn't it?) 

Yes. There is individuality individuality all through. 

(Wouldn't you like really to come back to this world?) 

I would like to have finished my work there but I have 

230 



FOURTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

taken up the threads threads here and am trying my level best, 
level, to finish it here. 

(Yes, but you left so much unfinished here, and you were 
just in your prime. I should think you would feel the call from 
this side. It's pretty strong.) 

I do therefore you UD why I am so persistent here, why 
I am so 

(Yes, I understand.) 

[Dr. Tanner calls Dr. Hall's attention to the fact that Mrs. 
Piper ought to come out of the trance soon in order to meet 
an engagement that she has, and Dr. Hall tells Hodgson that 
Mrs. Piper has an engagement to meet, and that she ought to 
waken very soon. To this the hand writes, ] 

What has that to do with me I'd like to know I will go 
when I have replied to all your questions. 

(We are all done.) 

[The hand reaches over and feels Dr. Hall's list of ques- 
tions, and then writes,] 

Finish and I'll go. 

[Dr. Tanner takes the list and lays it out of reach, and 
Dr. Hall reiterates that we are done, and asks:] 

(How can we get Mrs. Piper awake now?) 

I'll call i. s. d. will call him. When do we meet again? 

(Can we meet two weeks from to-day?) 

Oh, don't talk like that. Oh, don't talk, I can't UD. 

[Dr. Tanner then says:] 

(Can we come second after second coming? Will that be 
right?) 

I'll inquire. [The hand rises, beckons, questions, and 
writes,] Yes. Very good. I'll be here. Go tell your father 
to keep quiet. 

(My father?) [Dr. Tanner.] 

I said so. Got it? 

(Yes. I'll tell him.) [Dr. Tanner.] 

More next time. I want you to see daylight want you to 
see day, I want you to see daylight. 

(Yes, Hodgson. Thank you very much and good-bye.) 

Capital. Auf wiedersehen. 

(Adieu.) 

231 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Adieu. 

[Writing grows faint.] 

-J- We cease now and may the blessing of the Most High 
rest on you both. -f- Farewell. (R.) 

SUBLIMINAL 

At 12 : 41 Mrs. Piper finished writing and the head began 
to rise at 12 : 44, coming up permanently at 12 : 47. At 12 : 48 
the eyes were open but seemed not to see anything. 

SPOKEN IN THE SUBLIMINAL 

Horace. [Unintelligible words. Then deep sniffs.] 

(What do you smell?) 

Lilies beautiful Myers Joe Elizabeth 

Mother Uncle Rob Baby— — 

(What baby?) 

Mother's 

(What mother?) 

Madge 

(Who is Madge?) 

Hattie. 

(Hattie?) 

[Shakes her head.] 

Hodgson told me. Baby. 

(Whose baby?) 

Mother's 

(What mother?) 

Yours. 

(My mother's baby?) 

[Nod of assent. Then she catches sight of Dr. Hall, who 
is standing directly in front of her, and exclaims with the 
utmost disgust:] 

A-a-a-ah ! 

(Pretty bad, isn't it?) [he says]. 

[The questions above about the baby, etc., were asked by 
Dr. Tanner.] 

A-a-h! 

(You know me, don't you, Mrs. Piper) [asked Dr. Hall]. 

232 



FOURTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

What's the noise? 

(You recognise me, don't you?) 

You recognise me, don't you? 

(Yes.) 

Yes. 

(I'm afraid you going to be tired.) 

I'm afraid you're going to be tired. 

(I should be sorry to have you go into a sleep now.) 

I should be sorry to have you go into a sleep now. 

[This mimicry was given with Mrs. Piper looking at Dr. 
Hall and varying his inflections just enough for it to be very 
ludicrous. At this point Dr. Tanner, who was sitting close to 
Mrs. Piper and to one side, began to laugh, and Mrs. Piper 
turned toward her and scrutinised her intently, as she had 
Dr. Hall just a few minutes before.] 

(How do you do, Mrs. Piper?) [Dr. Tanner.] 

You look like an owL 

(Yes, and she makes faces like that, too.) [and Dr. Hall 
twisted his own face into a thousand wrinkles.] 

Oh, no, she doesn't ! [said Mrs. Piper in a shocked way, and 
the two of them had quite an argument over it.] 

You're getting nearer to me now — I don't care. I saw 
that lovely light with the rainbow in it. Did you hear my 
head snap? O-o-oh, you're Dr. Hall, aren't you? You looked 
so small a minute ago, so very far away. Did you hear that? 
[Referring to another snap of the head.] Why, I recognised 
you quite soon, didn't I? That shows I'm getting better ac- 
quainted with you. 

The conversation then became quite desultory, and it was 
remarked that this time she had only been in the trance a few 
minutes over the hour. This seemed to surprise her, for usu- 
ally it lasts about an hour and a half or three-quarters, and 
she seemed to be much interested and rather impressed to learn 
that we had succeeded in having the controls awaken her. 



COMMENTS ON THE FOURTH SITTING 

Our doubt of his identity had apparently rankled 
somewhat in R. H.'s mind, and had put him on his guard 
18 233 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

to some degree. He begins here, therefore, his policy of 
ignorance, but with the inability that we should expect of 
a secondary personality to grasp the whole situation, he 
fails to see that there are some things which R. H. must 
know, and that his ignorance and insensitiveness must be 
self-consistent. For instance, it is absurd to suppose that 
the spirit Hodgson could give us no information at all about 
Mrs. Piper, while at the same time he could tell us about 
" Uncle Robert's " lame leg, residence in Bay, accident, 
etc. His characteristic evasion of his mistake about my 
father is also in line with his attempts throughout the 
sitting. 

Then, when Dr. Hall began once more to press home the 
similarity between Hodgson and the imaginary Borst, in- 
stead of getting angry this time the control compliments 
him on his sincerity, and tries to divert us by his short- 
hand, and by rebuking my profanity, until Dr. Hall veers 
off to the matter of the control's sense perceptions. From 
here on the control professes inability or ignorance. 



CHAPTER XIV 
SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: FIFTH SITTING 

There was but little preliminary conversation this time, 
as we had a long programme planned and were anxious to 
cover as much of it as possible in the trance. Mrs. Piper 
looked pale and tired, and said that she had a slight head- 
ache, but that it was passing off, and it did not seem to 
affect her going into the trance. She also said that the hot 
weather was always very trying to her, and that she was 
very anxious to leave the city by June 1st, so that she 
could have a long rest. 

In this sitting, Dr. Hall and I had planned to test the 
senses as thoroughly as we could without much apparatus, 
and we hoped to discover enough sensibility to show that 
the control knew something about Mrs. Piper's body in 
spite of his reiterated assertions to the contrary. We then 
wanted to convict him of ignorance of his own life, and 
bring home to him the contradictions in which he had in- 
volved himself, once more trying to make him confess that 
he was not Hodgson but only Mrs. Piper. It took so long 
to make the tests, however, that we hardly finished the 
first part of the programme. 

The sitting opened as usual: 

-f- Hail. Once more we return to earth to greet you, 

friends. Peace and love we bring, -f- (R) 

(Good morning, Rector. Can you bring Hodgson to us 

now?) 

I'll call him as he expected to meet you this day. (R.) 
[A pause and then the hand cramps and clenches.] 
Hello, Hall. Got those problems solved yet? 

235 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

[From here on it was impossible to get Dr. Hall's exact 
words. Previous to the sitting he had made out a list of the 
questions he wished to ask, which he adhered to rather closely, 
but in some instances he added persuasive words, etc. I should 
also say that before the trance we opened the package of the 
Hodgson influences, before Mrs. Piper, but after the trance 
came on we substituted for the neckties a bundle of Dr. Hall's, 
which the hand used frequently during the sitting and seemed 
to derive much satisfaction from.] 

(Now, Hodgson, I want you to do a little different sort of 
test for me, which you may think rather silly. You said, you 
know, that we could make any tests we pleased, and Sir Oliver 
Lodge is rather anxious too to have us try some of these. Just 
look on it as a new game, or a repetition of some of the tests 
we used to try in the laboratory.) 

All right. 

(Now, you have control of Mrs. Piper's hand, and make it 
write, etc., and I want you to give close attention here to the 
hand, and tell me whether you can feel one point or two when 
I press upon it.) 

[The esthesiometer was then adjusted with the points ap- 
proximately three-fourths of an inch apart, and they were first 
touched lightly to the palm of the hand, in the centre. As 
this elicited no response, Dr. Hall pressed harder, and finally 
intimated that he was pressing.] 

I feel nothing. Try again. 

[Again he pressed, and this time with enough force to give 
considerable pain if the sensitiveness were normal, but no re- 
sponse came, and finally he said,] 

(Why, Hodgson, surely you feel that. You must feel it.) 

That is not so. I do not feel anything. Try again else- 
where and suppose you do not suggest anything about it only 
simply to tell me you are pressing. Suppose you try it gently 
and a little 



[Here the hand suddenly paused, raised itself and 
to beckon out into the room, and then wrote,] 

All right, I'll attend to you later. 

[Again Dr. Hall pressed, this time without saying any- 
thing, heavily.] 

236 



FIFTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

I had a sensation of two touches. 

(Good, Hodgson. That's very good. Now let me try again.) 

[The esthesiometer was readjusted at approximately half an 
inch, and again the pressure was applied, at first lightly, and 
then with a degree of pressure quite painful to the normal 
person, and with a slightly rocking movement, which would 
decidedly emphasize the two points.] 

Not so good. Not so good, but very probably one. 

(Excellent, Hodgson. Now we won't try that any more, 
but you tell me when you feel any pressure.) 

[We then took the algometer, and applied it also to the 
palm, Dr. Hall supporting the back of the hand against his 
own. The pressure was increased from nothing to twenty-five 
pounds, Dr. Hall asking at intervals whether he felt anything 
and the control replying,] Not in the slightest, [Until the 
maximum was reached, and then, when the pressure was re- 
leased, the hand wrote,] Rector forbids. Better not. 

[Now it must be noted here that while these somewhat 
severe tests were being applied, which the hand said it did not 
feel, the hand at the same time knew the instant when the 
instruments were removed from it, because at once it began to 
write, and it seemed to me very obvious that the twenty-five 
pound pressure was painful, or Rector would not have in- 
tervened.] 

(Very well, Hodgson, we won't try anything more like that. 
But now we want to see whether you can't detect any odours 
that are in this room.) 

Odour? 

(Yes. You know that last time you told us when the air 
was bad, and when you were alive you had a very good sense 
of smell. Now, just tell us whether you don't smell anything.) 

[I uncorked a camphor bottle and held it close up to Mrs. 
Piper's nostrils so that it seemed as if she could hardly get 
any air unless saturated with camphor. I held it there for 
some seconds without any effect, and the hand asked:] 

Ready? 

(Yes. Now, don't you smell camphor?) 

I can't smell anything. 

[I then tried two comparatively mild odours with the same 

237 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

result, and finally held a bottle of ether close, as I had the 
camphor. When she got the first whiff of this, Mrs. Piper 
winced decidedly and drew back, but when asked if he smelled 
anything, the control said again:] 

I do not smell anything. 

(But, Hodgson, give attention now, and I am sure you can. 
You ought to be able to smell this.) 

I certainly would if I could. 

[Again it was tried, but again came the same answer:] 

I smell nothing. 

[Unfortunately we could get no other unconscious betrayal 
here as with the pain and pressure tests, and so we left it. 
Dr. Hall then said that in the same way we wanted to try for 
taste, and told him to attend closely to Mrs. Piper's mouth, 
while I put some sugar into it. He told Hodgson that it 
would be sugar and quite agreeable, but in reality I put in 
about a third of a saltspoonful of salt. It was rather difficult 
to get this in, as the tongue seemed to be against the roof of 
the mouth, but I managed to get the spoon in, and closed the 
lips over the salt, holding them closed an instant or two. While 
I was doing this, the hand wrote:] 

Beady ? 

[The salt had been there only an instant, when Mrs. Piper's 
mouth drew up and became wry, just as anyone's would on tast- 
ing such a dose, but at the same time the hand wrote again:] 

Are you ready? 

(Yes, we are trying.) 

I taste nothing. 

[The salt continued to dissolve, and Dr. Hall urged Hodg- 
son to attend closely, but he kept on saying:] 

I taste nothing. T taste nothing. 

[We told him again that we had tried one test, and he 
wrote :] 

Only one? Only one did you say? 

(Yes, but now we will try something else.) 

[I then put about one-third of a teaspoonful of camphor in 
her mouth, but I do not feel sure how far it got in, and it 
produced no palpable effect. The hand wrote:] 

I am waiting patiently. 

238 



FIFTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

[And after an instant:] 

Why don't you try? 

(We are trying, Hodgson. We have been trying for some 
time. Can't you really taste anything?) 

I can't taste anything. 

(Once more, please.) 

[I then put nearly a saltspoonful of sugar in, and the hand 
wrote] 

Have you tried? 

[We did not pursue this any farther, as it was evident that 
even if he did taste anything the control would not admit it, 
and we had no check upon him. Dr. Hall therefore turned to 
another phase of the experiments, and spoke to him something 
in this style:] 

(Now, Hodgson, we are very anxious to try some other ex- 
periments. We know that you can do anything you want to, 
and we should like to have you raise Mrs. Piper's left arm.) 

I can't be in forty places at once. 

(No, but surely you can raise that arm. You do anything 
you want to with this right arm and hand — you make it write, 
and raise it, and so on ) 

That is my head, you stupid, head. 

(Come now, Hodgson, be honest. You know you can raise 
that arm if you want to.) 

I am as honest as I have power to be. 

(Yes, I don't doubt that. But, come, now. You can raise 
this hand as you please; raise it high.) 

My head you mean. 

(Well, your head, then. Raise it high, now, just to 
oblige me.) 

[The hand and arm then swept up, full length, coming down 
with a bang.] 

(Good. Splendid. Now, raise the other arm.) 

Can't do it. 

(Why, yes, you can, Hodgson. I am sure you can.) 

I can go out and 

(Well, that would be good, but wouldn't it wake her?) 

Not so, but exhausts her ether. 

(Well, we don't want that now. But try some other things. 

239 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Make her tap her right foot. You have control of the right 
side, and you can make her do that.) 

Cannot do it, Hall. I am sorry, would if I could possibly. 

(Yes, I know that is so.) 

Yes, indeed I would. 

(Well, now, I should like to have you try to control her 
mouth.) 

I am perfectly willing. 

(You know you used to make her speak. Try now.) 

I will try. 

[Dr. Hall suggests that he had better strengthen himself 
with the influence and passes over his neckties, which the hand 
clutches.] 

(Try hard now. Make her say, one, two, three.) 

I am trying. I am afraid I cannot. 

(Why, have you lost the power you used to have?) 

No. I could leave here and take that up. I could leave 
here and take that up. I will another day. I will do this next 
time if you like. 

(Very well, Hodgson. But now I want to try something 
else, if you don't mind.) 

All right, but we will have to go then. When I do this I 
will be obliged to go out entirely. 

(Very well, but don't go yet. Now, I should like to have 
you give Mrs. Piper a dream. You can do that, can't you?) 

I will try. Are you ready? 

(Yes. Now, do your best, Hodgson, for this is very im- 
portant.) 

All right, I will gladly. 

(Now, we are going out in a boat and are on the water. 
Don't you feel the motion of the waves, rocking up and down, 
up and down. How delightful it is!) 

[Dr. Hall talked at considerable length, painting the 
picture.] 

Are we on the water? I think you are the only one on the 
boat, Hall. I do not seem to feel upside down. 

(Oh, no, not seasick, but just a lovely, rocking motion. 
Surely you feel that?) 

No, but I wish I could. I used to love it. 

240 



FIFTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(And there's another boat, too, and there are two women 
in it. You see them, surely.) 

I am afraid I am blind Hall. 

(Now they are coming nearer, and they are looking at us. 
And one of them is waving her handkerchief.) 

Let's have a look and see. I love the ladies. 

[The hand raised itself and moved about as if looking.] 

Say, Hall, your boat is a myth. You must be dreaming. 

(No, you're the one who's dreaming. The boat is there, 
plain as can be, and the women.) 

I will look again. 

[Dr. Tanner makes an unnoted remark.] 

Neither do I. I can only see you and Mrs. H. She wants 
to know if you are satisfied. 

[This sudden variation introduced some confusion in our 
minds and we talked to each other a minute or so. Presumably 
the control heard, and went on,] 

I am so glad she popped in, she popped in. She asked if 
you are satisfied? 

(Oh. But don't you see that boat, Hodgson? and those 
women ?) 

You mustn't ignore her. Do say something, if only to tell 
her about the boat. Boat. 

(Well, now, Hodgson, suppose we speak to those girls, and 
make up a party with them.) 

Don't talk such nonsense, Hall. I used to think you were 
sensible. If you keep on don't lose your sense of Don't lose 
your sense of honour. 

(Oh, you don't understand, Hodgson. I know those girls, 
and I want to speak to them.) 

All right, glad you do. 

[Evidently we were not making much impression here, and 
so we shifted to some colour tests, though we had little expec- 
tation of their success. 

I had slips of white cardboard, four by two inches, with 
coloured paper, two and three fourths inches by one pasted on 
them, in the six standard colours, red, orange, yellow, green, 
blue, purple. I stood on Mrs. Piper's left side, and gently 
pressed up the eyelid until the iris was exposed. This was easy 

241 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

and certainly painless, and the eyeball was not perceptibly 
rolled up, though at times it rolled to the left and slightly up, 
especially when the hand began to write. I am sure, however, 
that with each of the colours, rays of light from them must 
have penetrated to the retina. Dr. Hall now explained that we 
wanted Hodgson to tell us if he saw any colour in the room.] 

Colour, colour. , 

[At this time I was exposing red.] 

I don't see any. 

(No, we don't mean tell us whether you see any. But tell 
us any colour that happens to come into your mind first. Think 
of some colour, and tell us what you think of.) 

White. 

[I then exposed blue.] 

(What colour do you think of now?) 

Black. 

[I then exposed yellow.] 

(Now think hard, Hodgson, what colour comes to mind 
now?) 

Mottled. Mottled. 

[There seemed no use in continuing these, and so we 
stopped. Dr. Hall then tried another tack.] 

(Now, Hodgson, you remembered your own address per- 
fectly well, and you know Mr. Dorr's. Why don't you know 
Mrs. Piper's? It's not consistent for you not to know it, and 
I think if you try you can give it to us.) 

I have tried and tried and tried again and again, but it 
does not come. I wish it did, then I should not seem so stupid. 

(Oh, no, you don't seem stupid, Hodgson, but it seems 
strange that this should not come.) 

I want to recall earthly things. [This was written over 
several times before we deciphered it.] 

(Well, no matter, Hodgson. But now, we want to try an 
experiment with hearing. You have told us, you know, that 
you hear through Mrs. Piper's hand, and we are very anxious 
to see whether you can hear just as well if Mrs. Piper's ears 
are stopped.) 

[Symbol that looks like X.] O Lodge asked me this 
himself. 

242 



FIFTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

[A watch was then held to the left ear, and Dr. Hall 
asked :] 

(Do you hear it tick?) 

No. 

(Now?) 

No. I don't. 

[The watch was then put in the hand.] 

(Now?) 

No. 

[This was done several times, but at no time did the con- 
trol admit hearing the watch. The clicker was then brought 
out and first clicked in the left ear.] 

(Do you hear this?) 

No. 

(Now?) 

No. 

[It was then clicked in the hand.] 

(Now?) 

Yes. Sounds like what we used to call a whistle. [Parts 
of this had to be rewritten before we could read it.] 

[The watch was tried again in the hand, with the usual 
question.] 

No. Sorry, but I don't. Try again on my head. 

[I took this to mean the hand, while Dr. Hall thought it 
meant Mrs. Piper's head, and the hand wrote:] 

I said my head, try 

[At this point we clicked in the hand again.] 

Yes. I heard that. 

[At this point we tried to stop the ears, but the conversa- 
tion went on as easily as before. I whispered to Dr. Hall to 
try to fool the control, by not clicking in his hand, but I think 
that he heard me. Dr. Hall then simply put the clicker against 
the hand and made the movement of clicking, asking:] 

(Do you hear it?) 

No. 

(Don't you hear this?) 

No. 

(Now?) 

Do as you did before. I shall hear it then. 

243 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

(Well, surely you hear it now?) 

I could hear it if you did it. 

(Well, you see, Hodgson, you really can't hear if your ears 
are stopped.) 

You try it honestly and see. 

[Dr. Hall then clicked.] 

(Do you hear now?) 

Of course I hear it. You can't deceive me to save your life. 

(Well, we'll have to admit that you got the best of us this 
time, Hodgson.) 

You can't deceive me. We are all we claim, and we are 
not here to deceive ourselves. We want to be 

strictly honest. taste for you, Hall. Make sense 

of what I say. 

(Yes. Now, I want you to tell me a little more about Mrs. 
Piper. Where did she get that parrot?) 

What? 

[This was asked five times, and at last the word was spelled, 
and the hand wrote,] 

Didn't know she had one, Hall. I am afraid you must 
cease. I am going out. 

(Oh, don't go just yet, Hodgson. Wait a little, if you can.) 

I'll try. 

(Do you remember a man I sent to you once, who drew 
very remarkable figures? I should like to have you tell me 
about him, his name, etc. Can you recall him?) 

I can't at the moment, but perhaps another time when the 
light is clear, I may. The ether is going, -f- says we must 
not remain too long. Good-bye. Going. Farewell, Hall. 
Next time I bring a friend I want you to speak to, next time 
I bring a friend I want you to speak to them. 

(Oh, yes. We'll try to be more polite next time, Hodgson. 
Sorry we were rude.) [Tanner.] 

(Now, will you please send Rector to us, Hodgson?) 

What can I do, friends, to help you? 

[Dr. Tanner then made arrangements for another sitter, 
who thought that possibly she would not herself be able to 
come at the appointed time, and wanted to send a substitute. 

She next presented an " influence " sent by Hyslop, on 

244 



FIFTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

which he wanted one of the controls to pass, but Rector said 
it would have to wait until another time, as it was too late 
then. Arrangements were then made for the next sitting, and 
the sitting was closed as usual.] 

We cease now and may the blessings of God rest on you. 
-f Farewell (R.) 



CHAPTER XV 
SITTINGS WITH MRS. PIPER: SIXTH SITTING 

In the interval between the last sitting and this one 
there had been some correspondence between Miss and 
Mrs. Piper on the one side and Mr. Dorr and Dr. Hall on 
the other, with regard to the experiments of the fifth sit- 
ting. This correspondence is on file. It appears that some 
time after the sitting red spots appeared on Mrs. Piper's 
palm, and her index finger was numb for two or three days, 
the red spots being the after-effects of the esthesiometer 
pressure, and the numbness probably due to the pain-pres- 
sure experiments. Her lower lip was also blistered from the 
camphor used. Her daughter wrote to Mr. Dorr the day 
after the sitting describing these effects, in some distress, 
saying that she had hoped that the need for such tests was 
over. Mr. Dorr sent the letter to Dr. Hall, and Dr. Hall 
wrote both to Mr. Dorr and Mrs. Piper explaining the 
experiments and stating that we had finished them, and 
that we should not have gone so far had not the Hodgson 
control authorised us to do so, and that we stopped when 
Rector told us to. In reply Mrs. Piper wrote back that she 
had no objections to experiments of any sort if they left 
no bad after-effects, but that of course she had wondered 
what had been done. 

At this sixth sitting, Dr. Hall took an esthesiometer and 
showed it to Mrs. Piper, illustrating how we had used it, 
and saying again how sorry he was that there had been 
such effects, but that Hodgson had given us the authority 
to go on. Mrs. Piper was much interested, but seemed to 

246 



SIXTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

feel that the experiments were proper, and recognised that 
we could not tell her beforehand about them. She said 
that Dr. Hodgson had tried some similar tests at one time, 
with much the same results. He had held ammonia to her 
nose, and she had taken deep whiffs of it without being 
sensible of it, but that afterward her nose had bled and 
had been extremely sensitive for a long time, and she is 
inclined to think that her sense of smell has never been 
as acute since. She also showed us a scar on one arm where 
she said some physician had lanced her arm while she was 
in the trance to see if it bled normally. 

Dr. Hall explained also that perhaps we went far- 
ther than we should otherwise, because we saw that all the 
time that Hodgson was saying that he did not feel, he knew 
when the pressure was removed, and guided himself on the 
paper. This surprised her, and she quoted Mr. Piddington 
as telling her that the hand was not sensitive, because it 
would write whether it had a pencil in it or not. We replied 
that that was true, but that it soon stopped writing if left 
without a pencil, and after being given the pencil, began 
at the beginning, instead of continuing. To this she made 
no answer, and the conversation drifted to the next topic, 
but these remarks should be noted in connection with the 
hand's behaviour later on. 

Dr. Hall then said that we wanted to try a few bilateral 
tests, and explained about mirror writing. She acted as 
if this were entirely new to her, and said that she never 
could do it, but, after Dr. Hall had written his own name, 
she tried, and succeeded tolerably well for the first time. 

Dr. Hall then told her to put her forefingers together, 
and at the word move them apart equal distances, illustrat- 
ing himself. The right hand moved considerably farther 
than the left. 

She then went through various movements with both 
hands, moving her fingers, but these were not done in detail 
enough to show any asymmetry, if there is any. 

247 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Naturally, she is left-handed, she says, but she seems to 
do most things with her right hand, such as writing and 
sewing, though she thinks that she could use a fork with 
either. 

She takes physical exercises every morning, and has 
since her operation, especially to strengthen the abdominal 
muscles. 

Dr. Hall then tried to hypnotise her again, having her 
close her eyes and think of sleep, and after a little I stroked 
her head and suggested sleep, going into the silence and 
calm, etc., heavy eyelids, relaxed hands. Her hands and 
arms were tense, and she did not relax in the least, nor 
seem to get into even a slightly hypnoidal state. With her 
eyes still closed, Dr. Hall asked her first to repeat what he 
said, and then to answer, and just at first she was a little 
confused, but after the first two times she did not get 
confused. He then asked her to tell what she was thinking 
about, and she mentioned the tablet in his hand. He then 
asked her to imagine a boat out on Bar Harbor, and she 
said that perhaps she could picture it after a while if she 
tried hard enough. Asked what she was thinking of then, 
she said the coil of my hair, and laughed, saying that her 
mind was always jumping about like that. At this point 
I began to stroke her forehead. Then a bust of Shakespeare 
came into her mind, and a sofa pillow, but although she 
said she was trying to sleep she could not do it, and finally 
the effort was given up as before. 

Dr. Hall then explained about the patellar reflexes, and 
she said that she had had them tested repeatedly, once 
within two years, and that they were alike on the two sides. 
We did not try them therefore. 

Dr. Hall made the remark that she seemed to have had 
most things tried on her, and she said that she thought she 
had, but that the worst experience she ever went through 
was when Dr. Hodgson set the detective to watching her. 
She spoke of that with horror. 

248 



SIXTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

We then reverted again to the insensitiveness of the 
hand, and she said that she had not felt anything in it 
until she washed it, and the soap made it smart. Again 
she reiterated that she had absolutely no memories of what 
went on in the trance, not even a sense of whether it was 
pleasant or not, and that the first thing she remembers on 
coming out of the trance is the last thing said on going 
into it. At this time she had not begun to go into it except 
for a very slight heaviness of the eyes, and Dr. Hall said 
to her that he wanted her to remember on coming out of 
the trance to move both her arms together, and that this 
would be the last thing he would say. In about thirty -five 
seconds her eyes had become slightly fixed, and the trance 
was coming on. At 11 :13 her head dropped, and very soon 
the hand and arm were extremely rigid. I should say here 
that just before Dr. Hall made this last suggestion, while 
talking about the hand, she had said that sometimes in the 
trance it dashed about so violently that it was cut on the 
edges of the pad or table, and that Dr. Hodgson would 
then try to hold it quiet, but that at other times he avoided 
touching it. And she noted that although it seemed thus 
insensitive, at the same time it seemed so very delicate in 
its discrimination of objects put into it, " influences," etc. 
Dr. Hall then told her about its handling the clicker, and 
how it seemed to feel that so acutely, and we both remarked 
that on the whole the hand was quiet with us, that it did 
not bang about, etc., scarcely any. I thought that she 
seemed a little incredulous of this, though she did not con- 
tradict us. At the same time, she said that she thought 
that a sitter's nervousness probably did affect the charac- 
ter of the sittings. I said that I felt sure of that, too, and 
asked her how she thought they modified them. She did 
not reply very definitely, but I gathered that in some in- 
stances she thought she got things from their minds. 

Now. in connection with these remarks about the quiet- 
ness of the hand and its writing without a pencil at the be- 
19 249 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

ginning of the sitting, note the behaviour of the hand when 
the trance came on this time. It clenched more violently 
than usual, the hand doubling back upon the wrist as it 
usually does only when Hodgson arrives, and then it began 
writing without the pencil, wrote for two lines, paused as 
if uncertain, but then continued — as it had not done at 
other times when not given a pencil — just' as if it recalled 
the previous bits of conversation and intended to act as if 
it were insensitive, but had forgotten its behaviour in previ- 
ous trances under such conditions. Dr. Hall then touched 
it lightly on the back with the pencil point, with no effect, 
and finally put the pencil between the second and third 
fingers, which the hand seemed to feel, but dully, and 
finally he put the pencil in the usual position, when the hand 
began with its usual greeting, showing that it knew it had 
not been using the pencil up to that time. 

We return to earth once more to-day with peace and 
love, -f (R.) 

[Throughout the sitting the writing was more rapid and 
illegible than usual and the hand more vehement, strengthen- 
ing my idea that there was some memory of the previous con- 
versation, and an attempt to act so as to contradict our 
statements.] 

(Now, Rector, wait awhile, please, before calling Hodgson, 
and let me talk to you. I want to ask you something about 
Mrs. Piper. You can tell us where she lives, surely.) 

[Here as in the other sittings the questions are not worded 
exactly as given.] 

Do you mean the light? 

(Yes. Can you tell me where the light lives?) 

No, friend. I am sure it is a country called America. 

(Very well, Rector. Now, will you please repeat the ques- 
tion I ask; not answer, but repeat: How old are you?) 

How are you? 

(Now answer the question: How old are you?) 

No, that is not necessary for me to waste light on. 

(All right. Now, please give me one or two association 

250 



SIXTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

words, write the first word that occurs to you, the first word 
that girl suggests.) 

Not much of anything to me. 

(Very good. Now, does compass suggest anything to you ?) 

No, friend. I do not think I 

(Now, Rector, can you raise the other arm of the light?) 

No, friend, that is not for use. 

(Well, can you tap with your right foot?) 

I have no feet here while speaking. 

(Very well, Rector. Now, then, please call Hodgson, but 
do it in such a way that he can control the body of the light.) 

[While saying this Dr. Hall held against the hand his silk 
handkerchief, crumpled into a ball.] 

I do not UD you well. You must not destroy my hearing. 

[Dr. Hall repeated the question again, with the handker- 
chief away.] 

I will call him presently. 

[Again, in a muffled voice with handkerchief close to his 
mouth.] 

I do not hear you, repeat again. 

[Again, with handkerchief between his mouth and the hand, 
so that no vibrations struck the hand, but the hand did not 
feel that the handkerchief was near as it did the first time. 
Doubtless the control heard, the first time the question was 
asked, but feeling the handkerchief packed into the hand, it 
tried to keep up the illusion that its ear is there.] 

-|- will notify me when he can come. Imperator will. 

(Very well, Imperator. We want Hodgson, please.) 

Do not be impatient, he will be here presently. He is 
anticipating meeting you to-day. (R.) 

[The hand then began to cramp very violently and to dash 
itself about upon the table with great force, and wrote,] 

Hello, Hall, I'm here again. 

(Glad to see you, Hodgson, but be a little quieter, please. 
You will hurt the light, and we can't read your writing.) 

Am I [unintelligible words] of it. [More unintelligible 
words.] 

(A little more slowly, please, Hodgson. Don't be so im- 
petuous, and write more plainly.) 

251 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Hall, I say I was not conscious of I being violent. Pardon. 

(That's all right, Hodgson, but we don't want you to ex- 
haust yourself.) 

Don't you worry about me. 

(Nor waste the light.) 

You think you are so clever. 

(Well, but you must be quieter, you know.) [Tanner.] 

Tell that lady to speak slowly if she wishes me to UD. 

(Now, Hodgson, at the last sitting you said that you could 
not raise the light's other hand then, but that you would do 
it to-day. Will you please try now, try very hard?) 

I will certainly try hard. Hall, this reservoir is filled with 
ether from one side. 

(Now, if you try this, and leave as you said you would, 
can you return to-day, Hodgson?) 

No, not to-day. I could go if you wish at any time and 
give it up for to-day. 

(But could you not move the light's other hand?) 

I could not do this without going out entirely. 

(Could you not come back after you had done it?) 

No. I should be obliged to leave, entirely. 

(But I should think you might come back afterwards.) 

I UD the conditions here better than anyone else. 

(Very well, Hodgson. Then stay and let the other go.) 

I will. 

(Now, Hodgson, please listen, for I have some important 
questions to ask you. First, can you tell me the name of the 
Watseka girl whom you investigated?) 

I referred to her long ago when I first passed over. I do 
not like your arrangements. 

[After seeing that Mrs. Piper's head was right, etc., we 
found that the writing table was placed so as to put the hand 
and arm in a strained position, and it was pulled closer to 
Mrs. Piper.] 

I wish to get the words better. Good. 

[Dr. Hall then repeated the question about the Watseka 
girl.] 

I am not sure that I could recall at the moment. [I am 
not sure was rewritten several times, before we could read it.] 

252 



SIXTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(Very well. Xow, I sent you once a man from Worcester, 
who did some very remarkable drawing, and you published 
several articles about him. Can you tell me his name 

"Was his name Donaldson? 

(Why, maybe it was! Now, can you tell me the name of 
the young lady you were once engaged to '{) 

Yes, if you promise not to speak of it in a way to injure 
her. 

(Oh, surely, Hodgson. We will be very carefuL) 

J— T— D— 

(Thank you very much, Hodgson. Xow, can you describe 
Madam Blavatsky's shrine f) 

Yes, but can't you coot. [This last word was 

rewritten several times until I exclaimed that he meant Koot 
Hoomi, when the hand paused.] 

[Dr. Hall then asked him again to describe the shrine, and 
the hand went through movements as if outlining it in the air. 
Then there was some reference not taken down, some remark 
made by Dr. Hall or myself, to which the hand wrote some 
unintelligible words. 

Dr. Hall then made quite a little speech to Hodgson. First 
he said to Hodgson that he had never met him while alive, and 
that he thought he was rather familiar to be calling him, " old 
chap " and " Hall."] 

I do not care a fig about that now, I wish to help you in 
understanding psychical phenomena. 

(Yes, but I think you are rather familiar, considering that 
we never met.) 

I would as soon call you old chap as anything. I would as 
soon call you old chap as Hall. 

(Well, now, Hodgson, I have experimented with several 
mediums, just as you did when you were alive, and I have 
been experimenting with you just as you used to with others. 
Now, I am going to tell you what I have done and see what 
you have to say. You make a great fuss about your influence. 
Well, I substituted a lot of my old ties for yours and you never 
knew the difference. What do you say to that ?) 

I saw your old influence. I saw and thought you intended 
them for me. 

253 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

(Well, that's pretty thin, Hodgson. You can hardly expect 
us to believe that.) 

I give you my word that I did. 

(Well, what do you say to this, Hodgson. I asked you to 
call Bessie Beals, and there is no such person. How do you 
explain that?) 

Bessie Beals is here, and not the 

[At this point we laughed and I made some remark to the 
effect that that was just what we had said Hodgson would do, 
and the hand continued thus,] 

I know a Bessie Beals. Her mother asked about her before. 
Mother asked about her before. 

(I don't know about that, Hodgson. Bessie Beals is a pure 
fiction.) 

I refer to a lady who asked me the same thing and the 
same name. 

(Guess you are wrong about that, Hodgson.) 

Yes, I am mistaken in her. I am mistaken. Her name 
was not Bessie, but Jessie Beals. 

(Now, Hodgson, I want to talk to you a little. Wait awhile, 
and listen until I am done. Now, I am going to be honest 
with you and tell you that you have not convinced us that you 
are Hodgson. You are just Mrs. Piper's idea of Hodgson, or 
else you are my old friend Borst. Mrs. Piper is a remarkable 
woman to make you seem so lifelike and vivid, but neverthe- 
less I am sure you are not Hodgson, but her secondary per- 
sonality or else Borst. You are not Mrs. William Piper but 
Mrs. Hodgson Piper, and I want you either to fade away into 
her or into Borst. I transfer all the esteem and admiration 
I have felt for you to Mrs. Piper Second or to Borst. She is 
honest, and honestly thinks it is you, but you are really only 
herself or else Borst, and you can take your choice which. 
Imperator and Rector are real, noble spirits, but you must 
confess that you are not Hodgson, but Mrs. Piper Second or 
Borst, and then you and I will say good-bye to each other 
forever.) 

[In reply to this the control tried to divert us by referring 
to some private affairs totally unconnected with the sitting, to 
which Dr. Hall replied:] 

254 



SIXTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

(This is evading the question. I say you are not Hodgson, 
and I want you to fade away, to become Borst or Mrs. Piper 
Second.) 

Look here, Hall, you ought to be ashamed to talk like 
that. 

(No, Hodgson, I am not ashamed. I am honest in this, 
and I want you to know just what I think before we say 
good-bye.) 

I UD, and I have been the same as far as it has been 
possible. 

(Very well, Hodgson, you are honest, too, so which shall 
I call you, Borst or Mrs. Piper Second?) 

You can't call me either and be a comrade of mine. 

(Now, I want you just to humour me, and let me call you 
one or the other.) 

I am neither. I am Hodgson, and I am perfectly sure of 
my own identity. 

(I wish I was. But I'm going to call you Borst.) 

Don't. Don't do that. 

(Why not?) 

Because I have felt so keenly, I have felt so keenly [Writ- 
ing through here illegible and had to be rewritten frequently.] 
your various whoppers all this time 

[We made some incredulous remarks to each other, laugk- 
ing at his inability to explain his various mistakes, and he 
went on:] 

I think I told you so before. 

[Which he certainly had not, having been trustful to the 
point of credulity.] 

(Now, just as a matter of repetition, to oblige me repeat 
the words, " I am not Hodgson.") 

No. I am Hodgson. 

(Very well, this ends it then. You can't convince me, and 
I am going to say good-bye, forever.) 

I do not expect to convince you in the least. 

(Now then, Hodgson, tell me, wasn't I justified in all this 
deception, for the sake of finding you out? You have done 
the same thing yourself, you know. Wasn't I justified?) 

Perfectly. 

255 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

(I want to say to you now that I think you are hurting the 
cause you represent by pretending to be Hodgson. I think 
you ought to fade away and give place to Rector.) 

I feel you are not wholly responsible for the deception I 
feel you brought more or less from the beginning 

[We were bewildered here, but finally said to each other 
that he meant we brought false " influences " from the begin- 
ning, to which the hand replied:] 

No, you do not IID me. I say you brought more or less 
deception from the beginning which I was aware of. 

(Well, we won't discuss that. Now, Mrs. Piper Second, do 
you know anyone with the name Owl's Eyes?) 

Hall, I insist upon being treated with respect. 

(I am treating you with the greatest respect.) 

[The hand wrote very illegibly, and had to repeat three 
times before we could read:] 

Thank you. 

(But I want you to humour me and be Mrs. Piper awhile.) 

Good-bye. I hope you will UD later. 

(Tell me whether you know anyone called Owl's Eyes.) 

If you properly address me. 

(Very well. Tell me, Borst, whether you know anyone 
called Owl's Eyes.) 

Don't be absurd, Hall. Let me say that I can take a joke 
as well as I ever did, but I cannot be catechised all the time. 

(Tell me how large I am.) 

I do not see your actual body. I see your spiritual body. 

(Well, since you will not let me call you what you are, I 
must say good-bye forever. Good-bye.) 

I am sorry for you but you cannot help it. You are you 
and I am I. 

(My last word to you is, Fade, and never come back again.) 

Thanks for the suggestion. Very good one. 

(Act on it, then. Good-bye.) 

Good-bye if you will, it from me to say adieu. 

I will see you on this side and will have it out then. 

(We'll part forever till then.) 

Your [illegible word often rewritten until finally we make 
it out to be] friend says good-bye too. I will repeat later to 

256 



SIXTH SITTING WITH MRS. PIPER 

[words scrawled over and unintelligible] her. I will repeat 
later, to her. 

(You may go now, but when Mrs. Piper is coming out of 
the trance, make her move both her arms and repeat ques- 
tions after me, when you are leaving here and she is coming 
back.) 

I thank you but I will go when I am ready. 

(Do you want us to leave Mrs. Piper alone?) 

[The control did not seem to UD this at first, so Dr. Hall 
repeated :] 

(We are going home now; we cannot stay here any longer; 
do you want us to leave Mrs. Piper alone in the trance?) 

I feel it would be wiser that you remain until I depart. 

(Well, how long is it going to take you to go? We have 
to go soon.) 

I must go very soon. 

(Very well. Good-bye.) 

I am glad to have seen you after all. Good-bye now, Rich- 
ard Hodgson. Adieu, -j- We cease now and may the blessing 
of God rest on you. (R) 

SUBLIMINAL 

At 12 : 20 Mrs. Piper began to come out of her trance, and 
at 12 : 26 Dr. Hall asked her if she saw Hodgson, but got no 
answer. Immediately afterwards she began to talk — 

Mother — Hello — There's Bessie. 

[Her left hand was rather restless, moving about on the 
pillow, though usually it is quiet. When she is coming out 
of the trance, the contractions of her face seem to be toward 
the left, the smile being only on the left, the mouth drawn far 
over to the left.] 

Mother . . cross. 

[Dr. Hall made waving movements of the arms in front of 
her, at short intervals, but obtained no response at all, nor did 
she mimic him. She then caught sight of her. left hand, 
studied it intently, and finally said: 

A-a-ah, awful. I saw a lady . . and Mr. Myers . . 

[Then she caught sight of me, studied me, and said:] 

You don't look nice, do you ? Are you in the body ? Aches. 

257 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

[Holding her right hand. This nearly always happens.] 
You're getting larger. Snaps. 

[Throughout, her left hand moved considerably, she rested 
her head on it, an attitude she has never taken before, and 
perhaps in this way she showed an indirect effect of the sug- 
gestion to make bilateral movements. She says that always 
after a trance there is a slight numbness in both hands.] 

When she had come out of the trance she asked if we 
were not coming again, and we said that it would be impos- 
sible now, but that perhaps in the fall we should renew the 
sittings, if there were time before she went to England. 
She asked us whether we had reached any conclusions, and 
we had considerable discussion here. We said that we had 
not yet formulated our results, and felt that we had found 
many difficult and baffling things, that really we had 
been finding out how to work. Dr. Hall said that the most 
baffling thing to him was that no memories of the trance 
ever came into consciousness, even in the form of feeling 
states, and again she reiterated that she never had any 
memories at all. In various ways she showed again that she 
believed in the spiritistic theory. 

I asked her what she thought of Mr. Piddington's re- 
port, especially the sections on the Latin Message, and she 
said that she thought it was " perfectly extraordinary." 
She talked about this at some length, seeming to be per- 
fectly sincere and credulous in her wonder at what the 
control had accomplished. 

She was evidently very curious to know whether we were 
at all convinced and kept looking at both of us with a con- 
templative, questioning gaze, and when we said good-bye, 
and thanked her for her personal courtesy, the last thing 
that we saw was that same questioning gaze. 



CHAPTER XVI 

CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

I begin to suspect that we can reduce her control, 
Hodgson, at least to a secondary personality or to a part, 
mood, or impersonation of Mrs. Piper, and perhaps make 
him confess that he is so. These controls are often entirely 
indistinguishable the one from the other ; and he grows less 
Hodgsonesque during the progress of each sitting and is 
less so as the series of sittings proceeds. Is the control so 
suggestible that he can be made to fade into a mere state of 
mind of the medium, and even perhaps to confess that he is 
nothing more substantial than her trancoidal dream? Can 
this be done successively with all her controls? What is 
our responsibility for constraining them to commit this 
kind of slow suicide ? Shall we be accessories to the crime 
of ghostly felo de sef Man can kill the body, but can a 
psychologist also desecrate souls ? This very question almost 
suggests the awful second death of theology, and chimes 
in well with the theory that the soul survives the death of 
the body a while, but may itself go out later. Then, too, 
why should we lay these poor ghosts, who doubtless enjoy 
their rather pallid lives up to the full measure of their 
capacities ? Perhaps, too, our process of extermination may 
not be painless but may involve suffering akin to slow 
poisoning, a surgical operation, or vivisection, and we shall 
need also to defend it from the sentimentalists as all in the 
cause of science, and especially for the sake of practical 
therapeutics. It is not exorcism of evil spirits, for that 
would be a duty, but these controls are harmless and inno- 
cent, if not highly meritorious and dignified, ghosts. 

259 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

We have, however, slowly drifted to the conclusion that 
they are not real ghosts that survive death in some trans- 
cendental realm, but only pseudo or simulacral spirits; 
so that it is against these impostors that we prepare 
a I'outrance with our false ambuscades, strategies, springes, 
and traps ; so that even if we are to be veritable assassins 
we yet are not red-handed, for our thirst is only for the 
gory ichor or blue blood in the Jenseits. Let us then go 
scalp-hunting for these phantoms in the interests of the 
psychic integrity of Mrs. Piper, and in the hope of re- 
solving them all into her various moods and tenses and, 
when this is done, reuniting them under the dominion of 
one central, normal ego, thus restoring her distraught soul 
to unity and sanity. We burn with faith and enthusiasm 
to redintegrate her psyche, and are convinced that it needs 
only time, patience, and subtlety ; and our only fear is that 
we may lack some measure of each of these. But we will 
go far enough to satisfy at least ourselves of the attain- 
ability of this goal. 

But to attain this end we must learn to conjure with 
some soul-compelling spell. What can it be, and how can 
we use it? What a miracle of psychotherapy if one like 
Mrs. Piper, smitten lo ! these twenty years with the malady 
of a bifurcated personality, can have her cleft nature made 
whole again ! The restorations effected upon the patients 
of Morton Prince, Janet, Sidis, etc., would pale before 
this if it could be accomplished. 

I believe the spell — if there be one — will be found deep 
down, mostly below the consciousness of Mrs. Piper's own 
psyche, in a hidden wish to be made sound again like others. 
What are the evidences of such inclination on her part? 
She wishes to go back to the Orthodox Church of her early 
life but fears that, knowing her belief and vocation, it 
would not welcome her. She is intelligent and reads good 
literature. Perusing as she does the records of all her 
trances, she cannot avoid feeling as others do that there is 

260 



CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

something not only strange, but a little weird and uncanny, 
about her. She may accept or have accepted the interpre- 
tation others have put upon it as spirit control, and do this 
now from habit reinforced, no doubt unconsciously, by the 
fact that it is for her material interest to do so, as conjurers 
once claimed the aid of supernal powers. While the in- 
stinct to be again normal or like others may never have 
risen above the threshold, there are signs that it is growing 
toward birth. Women do not like to be exceptional curi- 
osities. Again, she keeps her daughters as far as prac- 
ticable from this side of her life, and is glad that they show 
little traces of mediumship, and would ignore and not culti- 
vate the possibilities of it that she recognises in one of them. 
Besides, what advantage have the spirits brought her save 
a not wholly enviable fame and a slender means of liveli- 
hood 1 She is looked at askance, carefully conceals her 
vocation from dwellers of other flats in her own house, has 
been fairly persecuted by reporters and exploited by the 
press in ways that she describes with just indignation. 
True, her powers have brought her into the society of culti- 
vated and noted people, but not as one of them, and she 
has grown too refined to consort with the common ruck of 
spiritualists and looks down upon them. 

As the change of life slowly supervenes, and with it 
comes, as seems probable, some abatement of her mediumis- 
tic powers, of which we think there are already signs, we 
may safely predict a progressive atrophy of all the sub- 
jective processes as well as of vocational activities in this 
direction. We can and should help her on toward this, by 
at least slightly repressing the insistence of the more domi- 
nant of her controls in order that the process of psychic 
intussusception of the parts of this fissioned soul may begin 
healing at the bottom before it is too late. 

The main fact in the trance is that the onlooker is 
deeply impressed with the idea that she is unconscious of 
everything in her environment, that her soul is far away, 

261 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

and her faculties are in abeyance. Some of her clients 
are thus thrown completely off their guard, so that they 
at first whisper, then talk sotto voce, and perhaps finally 
in their natural tones very freely to each other, feeling 
that she is out of their social circle unless, like a deaf per- 
son, addressed forte or fortissimo. It does seem at first 
indeed a magic hand which hears and writes, while the rest 
of the psycho-physic organism is functionally dead, and 
the medium's soul is not at home to callers but far away. 
Only the hand and arm are vitalised — they are sensitive, 
alert, tense — while deep sleep, twin brother of death, 
shrouds the other parts and processes. Upon reflection, 
however, we realise that at least the manual brain centres, 
both sensory and motor, must be awake, with both afferent 
and efferent innervations pitched to a high key. The hand 
points, nods for yes, shakes for no, quivers with impatience, 
listens, gestures for silence, beckons, with quite a vocabu- 
lary of signs. These centres in the left hemisphere then 
are by no means asleep, but have quite a collection of re- 
sponses to outer stimuli, so that here at least there seems a 
break in the dense cloud of sleep that has settled over the 
cortex. 

By contrast with this latter the hand might well seem 
to the uncritical observer as highly potentialised. Yet the 
writing is very crude and coarse, far more rudimentary 
and childlike than that of the medium when awake. This 
suggests more or less befuddlement of the centres involved. 
The script is comparable with the blurred speech of an 
inebriate. Even when there is a demand to rewrite, the 
handwriting is but little improved. Thus the accessory 
muscles that make good chirography are either asleep, ob- 
nubilated, or a little sleepy drunk. There is tension with- 
out accuracy, so that the condition of the hand, arm, and 
their centres suggests abnormal or toxic agitation. The 
hand, too, is only subnormally sensitive to compass points 
and other sense stimuli. Thus the control appears to have 

262 



CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

only a rather undervitalised organ at its disposal. Mrs. 
Piper herself can do far more and better in any of these 
directions than can Rector, Imperator, or Hodgson; and 
the latter at least wrote far better when alive than he can 
do with Mrs. Piper's hand, which is perhaps not surprising, 
for penmanship is probably not needed by the spirits save 
when they condescend to communicate with mortals. Per- 
haps one of the charms of the hereafter is that there will 
be no books or manuscripts to pore over. Sitters should 
doubtless consider themselves fortunate that the denizens 
of the great beyond vouchsafe them even hieroglyphs to 
decipher as best they may ; but why will not some medium 
offer them a chance to use a hand skilled on the typewriter ? 
It is exasperating to be so often in doubt as to these now 
runic, now cluttered and stogey, creeds which often seem so 
cryptic and mystic as to suggest quite a variety of words in 
turn, even those of foreign tongues, which spirits are so 
fond of affecting. Perhaps these sign manuals are signals 
or cryptograms, such as were so pregnant with meaning to 
alchemists and astrologers, and which would be fairly blaz- 
ing with significance if our ignorance of these old drafts 
was cleared up. This department of spirito-logical inter- 
pretation or diplomatology is yet to be developed; and 
when it is, it may be that what seems to our dull wit only 
pot-hooks, hen-tracks, blobs, and blotches, will blaze with 
anagrammatic wisdom that will make the world sit up and 
listen. Until then we can do no otherwise than believe that 
Mrs. Piper's hand in her trances, while alert and active in 
a general way, is specifically both clumsy and obtuse, 
nervous but half asleep, loquacious but mumbling, yielding 
itself but unwillingly and bunglingly to compulsion from 
some higher, other than manual centre. The spelling is 
generally correct; and spelling is a higher function than 
writing, and so we are invited to look above for the seat 
of the alert control that seems to stand out like an oasis in 
the heart of a great desert of somnolence. 

263 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

It is vital to remember, in the next place, that the left 
ear is certainly awake, because over and over murmured 
words, between those present, steps, rustles, laughs, and 
many other noises are heard and reacted to, sometimes un- 
expectedly, by the writer. It is the ear, of course, that 
hears what is spoken into the hand. The establishment of 
this fact is of great significance. The clever trickster might 
have reasoned out a scheme of impressing the sitters with 
the idea that they must shout into the hand and that all 
else was lost, so that they would thus be thrown off their 
guard, while the intently listening ear would catch and 
utilise for the manual responses all that was said to each 
other. The keener the audition and the more deft the hand, 
the wider the range of oral impartation from whispering 
to shouting that would be profited by. With Mrs. Piper 
we believe this method was not a project of strategy or de- 
signed, but a slow, unconscious evolution. Thus, responses 
and statements are written that fairly smite with wonder 
the incautious and uncritical sitter, who naively allows him- 
self to fall into the assumption which the method suggests 
that the control hears nothing but what is loudly spoken 
into the hand. The sitters have really thought aloud and 
communicated in low tones to others, feeling as secure 
against betrayal as if their thoughts were unspoken, and, 
perhaps, indeed, not conscious that they had been put in 
articulate form. Thus, when natural answers come back, 
they seem veritable mind-reading or marvellous illustra- 
tions of the pellucidity of the sitters' souls to the celestial 
visitant. 

Now, it is a very significant fact that stenographic rec- 
ords have rarely been kept, even of the ipsissima verba, 
that are consciously said to the control by the sitters. Even 
our record, which was made as full as long hand could be, 
does not do this. This is because the feeling has been that 
the important things of the sitting came from the medium, 
when the exact reverse is true. Everything that is really 

264 



CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

significant comes from the sitters. Far less has there been 
any stenographic record of things said loud or low in the 
room, where there frequently are at least two if not more 
visitors present. Under the conditions of the sitting, the 
temptation is incessant to carry on considerable conversa- 
tion, to express secret plans, and purposes and methods that 
betray answers; and all with the same feeling of security 
that we have, as I said, in speaking before the deaf. Such 
talk is, much of it, almost immediately forgotten, if, indeed, 
it was conscious even at the time. Yet in this is the source 
of supply from which the control garners most of its 
knowledge of us. There are, of course, inflections, too, 
movements, slight noises, etc., which are more or less signifi- 
cant. Often, especially in our characterisations of both real 
and fictitious dead friends, we have only given the name 
and a few salient facts to the ear, adding various details 
in a low voice to Mr. Dorr and Dr. Tanner, while the hand 
was writing, which, however, insistently utilised these 
sources of information by incorporating reactions in the 
script, while we tried not to be remiss in the expressions of 
wonder which seemed to be the usual and proper thing 
under such circumstances. Thus, the auditory centres were 
not asleep but seemed in full function, and at first we 
thought that there was some hyperacuity, although we were 
not infrequently asked to repeat as if to keep up the illusion 
that the hand was hard of hearing. Yet here, too, subse- 
quent observation suggests obtuseness and subnormality, 
that while the ear heard, it did so dimly and sleepily, or 
else tended to drop off into the slumber in which the eye 
and other orienting faculties were wrapped. On the whole, 
we incline to the idea that, although we have here the 
source of by far most of the information the control seems 
to possess that appears supernormal, that the ear itself in 
point of fact is not very wide awake, and most of the time 
is only a little above the middle state between sleeping and 
waking. Mrs. Piper used to speak in her trances as well 
20 265 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

as, or instead of, writing; but of late oral communications 
seem to have sunk below the threshold or gone over to join 
the majority of dormant powers. 

Thus, by the process of elimination, we seem to be re- 
ferred at last to the higher psychic powers, whether of the 
medium or the control, to explain the patness and sagacity 
of the writings. Somewhere in the supreme centres, where 
attention and apperception hold their court, must be 
sought the subtle mentation displayed in the rapt state of 
this seeress. If we admit hand and eye a little subnormal 
in their powers, this warrants the inference of all the more 
marvellous activities of some superconsciousness. The worse 
the tools, the more clever the artist. Here, if anywhere, the 
celestial visitor, with vision clarified of mortal dross, uses 
the implements of flesh to impart revelations of supernal 
wisdom. What, in fact, do we receive from these supreme 
altitudes ? We must answer, in general, considerable mem- 
ory of names and incidents across the interval of from ten 
days to two weeks between sittings, but this is faint and 
usually needs suggestion to reawaken it. There is also 
much deftness and rapidity in catching on to all the sug- 
gestions of the moment, which are not, however, always 
very persistent but tend to fade. There is some blunder- 
ing, occasionally complete forgetfulness. We find no trace 
of any power to distinguish the lie from sincerity, or 
error from truth, but instead a precipitate readiness to 
accept any suggestion whatever, no matter how inconsist- 
ent with other incidents. There is not the slightest power 
of continued and coherent impartation or discourse, but 
only platitudinous generalisations, ejaculations, trite com- 
monplaces, vagueness in the answers of definite questions, 
and shiftiness, evasion, postponement galore, fondness for 
phrases that mean anything, occasional lapses to bathos 
and twaddle, and sudden forgetfulness and vacuity in the 
middle of sentences, as if " the light " suddenly went out. 
The association experiments and reactions suggest a low 

266 



CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

type of mentality, inferior, on the whole, if only because 
less controlled and revised, than the longer reactions of the 
waking state. The only spontaneous impartations in the 
whole series of sittings are a few personal names, allusions 
to a mole, a scar, a book, a baby, several diseases, scenes, 
and incidents, etc. ; and these were lightly dropped as hints, 
and each of those that were reacted to, and only those, were 
developed more or less in whatever direction and to what- 
ever extent we gave the cue. These we interpreted as fish- 
ing, hints for us to follow up in case any of them hap- 
pened to fit. As mind-reading the whole performance is 
more clumsy than a deft normal person, who uses mainly 
muscular reactions, could achieve. 

On the whole, indeed, we already realise how ineffably 
dull and boresome these sittings would become if they 
had to be followed up too long or held too frequently. We 
dishonour our immortal parts by thinking that we find them 
here. Supernormal agencies have always been supposed to 
exist where man's knowledge was least developed. Once 
they were found amidst the phenomena of storm, lightning, 
cloud, eclipse, heavenly bodies, beneath the earth or the 
sea, in the " resurgam " motive of springtime, in the mi- 
grations of birds, and the appearance of entrails, when the 
courses of these phenomena were still unknown. Now 
there are terrce incognitce where these mystic agents are 
sought — those which are merely dynamic are sought in 
electricity, and those that are psychic in the subconscious 
soul of men. In the latter, the supernals good and bad 
have always had a stronghold, but in these days of science 
this is about their last refuge, for they are exorcised from 
their old haunts. As Spiritists regard exceptional phe- 
nomena in the psychic field to-day, just so primitive men 
regarded all unusual or unknown processes throughout na- 
ture. There is, in fact, nothing here save what we just 
now have no better name for than a parasitic secondary 
personality that sometimes asserts itself. 

267 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

In Mrs. Piper, the eye with its primacy of function is 
shunted out; so is general sensibility; probably her diges- 
tive, and certainly her respiratory, functions, taste, smell, 
general tactile sensibility and motor innervation are asleep. 
But, as the tide ebbs, there is in her strangely configured 
soul a singular land-locked bay, where the tide stays at 
half ebb until it rises again and reunites the bay with the 
sea and its forms of life, and cadences its waves to those 
of the ocean. Perhaps we fish and explore a little on the 
banks of this cut-off inlet and wonder that it seems so 
high when the tide is all out and far. We think we see 
in its depths skyey objects which we never see in the ever- 
turbulent sea. Sea-rovers, who have never seen a lake, 
come from far and marvel at the transparency of this, 
for their eyes could never penetrate any depth of the ocean. 
They bathe in it for their diseases, they think it mystic, 
sacred, therapeutic, while in the low susurrus of its ripples 
on the shore, when the breeze stirs and ruffles its surface, 
they find voices, and they cast auguries by the ripple-marks. 
They seem to see straight down through the very earth, 
which is only the heavens reflected. They cast stones, and 
the splashes say things; they see their own reflection and 
learn first the powers of a mirror, and self-knowledge is 
begun. 

As to the psychic activity of the control, which goes on 
between sittings, this must be granted : not infrequently in 
our and in other sittings questions and stunts of various 
kinds have been answered tentatively or postponed until 
later sittings, so that there is often a bunch of pledges of 
further enlightenment standing over, left to be redeemed. 
This is well calculated to stimulate curiosity and to bring 
the. sitters back. Our exhortation to the control to think 
things over seems to increase not only its mentation be- 
tween spells but also the probability that the dropped topic 
will be taken up at a later sitting without our specific re- 
quest. Sometimes matters that are left over are tided 

268 



CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

along, perhaps with appetising suggestions and partial 
progress through a series of successive sittings, days or 
even weeks apart. This fact is interesting, and raises vari- 
ous questions. We might infer from it that it is not nec- 
essary for her to go into a trance in order that her control 
get in its work, but that there is a Herbartian Bearbeitung 
of the ideas and impressions between sittings which takes 
place while she is in her normal state. If so, this process 
would seem to be essentially unconscious to her waking 
mind. If this be the case, may it be that her secondary or 
parasitic personality depletes somewhat the vigour of her 
normal self by diverting for its use a part of the sum total 
of her available psycho-physic energy to its uses, as peo- 
ple surreptitiously tap electric currents, gas pipes, etc.? 
It certainly must cost more force to keep two egos in opera- 
tion than one. This would seem to suggest that there is 
double housekeeping going on, that two souls at the same 
time inhabit Mrs. Piper's body. On any such assumption 
endless speculative questions present themselves; e. g., 
although unconscious of each other, do the conscious and 
subconscious egos harmonise, or are they sometimes at cross 
purposes? Does sometimes one and sometimes the other 
have the greater relative increment of strength as interests 
and situations in the environment change? Where impor- 
tant choices are being made, does what is in other minds 
alternate weighing of reasons, become in Mrs. Piper's two 
voices or advocates, reasoning out pros and cons with each 
other — i. e., in the crucial act of decisions where a wide 
periscope must be made, does either personality entirely 
exclude the activity of the other? Or, again, shall we as- 
sume that it is not during the waking hours but more prob- 
ably during Mrs. Piper's sleep that the control has its 
occasional innings and gets in its work ? It may sleep when 
she wakes and wake while she sleeps, or tend to do so. If 
the latter be true, then her normal sleep approximates that 
of the trance, at least in so far as it favors the activity of 

269 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the control. This means a diurnal an rebours life. Mrs. 
Piper's night is the day of the control. It comes out like 
the stars when the sun of consciousness sets. Its activity 
is not unlike that of continued systematised dreams in 
those cases where sleepers revert often to the same topics; 
or perhaps even act out in a somnambulistic way similar 
parts as if in a continued story. 

These considerations bring us to the problem of the re- 
lation between her dual states. It seems incredible that, hav- 
ing read reports of all her sittings, there should have been 
in her mind no glimmer of a deja vu experience, even the 
faintest, of the most salient happenings in her trance. Pos- 
sibly here, too, hypnosis might effect some junction, and 
could probably be made very effective in breaking down the 
wall or partition between her two states and unifying her 
life, but for the " de-social and economic situation/ ' 
Surely between two souls in one body there must be some 
percolation or seepage. 

There would seem at least to be some coenaesthesias or 
common sensibles between the individuals that constitute 
this strange pair of psychic Siamese twins. Chang surely 
must impart at least his most general affectivities to Eng. 
Mrs. Piper feels the fatigue of the control, for she emerges 
from an unusually long, deep, or drastic trance exhausted. 
Again, what we were told of one sitter suggests at least 
that the personal aversion he provoked in Mrs. Piper and 
in the control was more or less similar in kind and amount, 
suggesting that one may influence the other in the matter 
of personal likes and dislikes. I fancied that I myself de- 
tected a faint left-over trace of coolness toward me in Mrs. 
Piper, after waking from the third sitting, like the tenuous 
after-image of the aversion aroused in Hodgson by what 
he thought was an imposition or an attempt to deceive dur- 
ing the seance. In general, Mrs. Piper has doubtless so 
often had frequent occasion to deny all communication be- 
tween her two states that she has developed an idea of a 

270 



CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

water-tight compartment between them, which is becoming 
more or less fixed. And so she has grown unconsciously 
indisposed to admit every or any functional synapses be- 
tween the two psyches that inhabit her soma. It is not 
exactly that she has an irrevocable idea of their complete 
duality, so much as that the entire structure of her theory 
about herself rests very largely upon the assumption of a 
pretty complete bifurcation as its corner-stone. Even 
when we try to impress the deja vu idea upon her, her 
answer to the general question is a little too ready-made to 
permit a candid reopening of the question that shall in- 
volve anything like a careful re-review of her experiences 
while reading all her own sittings. She was probably a 
good way from proposing, as we would like to have had her 
do, to reread some characteristic parts of the record to see 
if she did not find a dim sense of familiarity that was un- 
observed before. She certainly cannot, we think, ever have 
read these records with this question in the focus of her 
attention, for she did betray the fact that our question and 
the thought it conveyed was new to her. 

The " control " often injects into the sitting casual or 
incidental words, phrases, perhaps direct questions, etc., 
which are quite disconnected with the course of thought 
and unsuggested by anything in the conference. These 
seem to be images that occur spontaneously and often irrel- 
evantly, and that lie quite outside the current of associa- 
tions, like erratic psychic boulders or dikes thrust up 
through the stress of ideas and rupturing them, or like sug- 
gestions from another mind, so stray, random, and isolated 
are they from what goes before or after. It is as if an 
independent spring of a different order bubbled up beneath 
the tiny current of a rivulet. These eruptive ideas are 
perhaps an unique characteristic of this class of minds, 
the habitus of which seems often to have been much culti- 
vated. They almost suggest weird snatches or germs of an 
alien personality trying to break into consciousness, but 

271 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

unsuccessfully save for a moment. For this phenomenon I 
do not find any word, which is surely needed, so specifically 
different is it from what ordinarily goes on within. We 
might call them " psycho-keksids " or psychic bubbles. 
These the medium apparently comes to lay very great stress 
upon and believes them to be fraught with great signifi- 
cance, while the believing sitter is prone to regard them as 
cues and tests, pregnant with meaning, if he can only get 
at it. Perhaps they may be conveyed telepathically from 
other minds. They challenge the attention of the sitter at 
once, and exhort him to a hasty periscope of his recent ex- 
perience to see what he can remember. He strains his mind 
to match them with something in himself: it may be a 
proper name, a foreign word or two, a physical trait, scar, 
lameness, a book, accident, or any object, incident, or salient 
event. The sitter feels urgently called upon, almost as if 
by a direct question, to seek an answering object or event 
within his own life, knowledge or circle of acquaintances, 
past or present. It is a sign demanding an interpretation. 
We must find some counterpart or correspondence to fit it, 
and if we fail we feel that it is somehow our fault, that we 
are slow and dull of apprehension. The " control " is 
often precipitate and gives us little time; he prefers our 
reaction by first intention, as if second thoughts to him 
seemed like second-hand goods. If a hit is made and we can 
match the suggestion, there is often an exhilarating re- 
sponse in us, a kind of eureka sentiment. The balance, in 
which our belief or unbelief has long hovered uncertain, 
tips. It is thus a crucial moment when we hear these 
psycho-keksids calling us. Are they tempting sirens that 
would lure us to our destruction, or are they angelic beck- 
onings to a higher world? Can and shall we grasp these 
lines thrust across the chasm that separates the mundane 
from the spiritual world, and go and build a bridge to the 



Here psychic diathesis and individual psychologic dis- 

272 



CURRENT NOTES BY DR. HALL 

position play an important role. After one has had a dozen 
such provocative solicitations in a sitting, he begins to feel 
compulsion lest something be lacking on his part. If he is 
not dense, he is at any rate a trine hard and unsympa- 
thetic to refuse a whole series of such gentle invitations. 
Why discourage the " controls "? Perhaps our souls 
somehow do not ring true. Even common etiquette between 
the denizens of two worlds would seem to suggest that we 
ought to meet the ghosts at least half-way. In this rather 
tense state of mind, the question is almost inevitable on the 
sitter's part whether it be not justifiable in a true re- 
searcher in this most unique situation to feign at least a 
little interest, if not to give an occasional assent. The door 
of the soul may be opened at any rate a little to the fairy 
rappings of these ethereal spirit folk, who are trying so 
hard to make connections with us, their relatives, who are 
doomed to spend our entire lives crawling about in the 
dark, dirty bottom of this dense sea of air, which our celes- 
tial visitants try from sheer love to penetrate in order to 
reach us and allure our thoughts upward to a higher and 
brighter world, though it be but for an hour. 



CHAPTER XVII 

THE MEDIUM IN GERM 

In presenting the following cases of incipient medium- 
ship which have come under my notice, both of which were 
cases sincere and free from fraud, one of the important 
things I have in mind is to show how alien to the mind of 
the medium herself is the true cause of her states. The 
history of " this girl," as seen by herself, is given in the 
first part of the paper, her own words being often used, 
while the underlying motive did not appear until the last 
sitting. In the case of the older woman, she does not seem 
to have connected her feelings of possession, etc., with her 
condition of health, and in proportion as she did this she 
was able to resist the tendencies. 

Imagine an impressionable, dreamy girl, the constant 
companion of a mother who was born with a veil and who, 
true to that heritage and to the teachings of her own seeress 
mother, saw visions and talked with spirits. Far more than 
in most families the mother and daughter were dependent 
upon each other for companionship, for the mother was 
somewhat alienated from her husband, and even meditated 
a divorce, and the family lived in a small town, and were 
not church attendants, thus missing the chief source of 
social life in a small place. The girl and her mother read 
much, though perhaps superficially, on popular psychology, 
science, astronomy, and geology, etc., depending largely on 
Chamber's " Encyclopedia " for their information. They 
worked out theories of their own on the evolution of the 
earth, on life and society, on the nature of God and immor- 
tality, and on the moral abuses of to-day. 

274 



THE MEDIUM IN GERM 

As adolescence approached, the daughter inevitably 
nourished her soul on dreams of greatness, and the mother, 
given to visions of another world, was lynx-eyed to inter- 
pret every oscillation of mood as due to spirits pressing in 
upon her daughter's soul. 

But not until, at seventeen, the girl first went to a me- 
dium did the dreams become visions. Not only did the 
medium give the girl messages, but she said that the spirits 
destined this girl for a great work and would soon take 
control of her themselves. Then soon, in the quiet of her 
own home, the spirits did appear, at first only as visions, 
silent though distinct, but in the course of a month, audible 
as well as visible, able to tell her directly what they wished, 
and to prove themselves by showing her clairvoyantly her 
father 's boyhood home and by prescribing for a sick friend 
of his. 

For years the girl did not display her power outside of 
the family circle and never earned money by it, though 
they were poor, but simply cultivated her spirit acquaint- 
ances, "until she had a circle of them who played the same 
part in her life that companions of her own age do in the 
life of any normal girl. They helped her trim her dresses 
and hats, advised her about family troubles, health, etc. 
Then, too, there were greater spirits : Lucifer, familiarly 
called Zezy, and Oleof, master of the elements. They were 
the leaders of a band of spirits who have never been in- 
carnated, and to whom God has given as a great and special 
trust the conversion of the world for Christ 's second coming. 

By slow degrees, over a period of four years, the convic- 
tion was borne in upon this girl that she was the divinely 
appointed medium through whom these spirits were to work, 
and just at the critical moment when she had shaped this 
definitely to herself she saw in a paper the announcement 
of a course of lectures to be given at a near-by university 
by a certain well-known psychologist on Spiritism and 
allied phenomena. This, the spirits told her, was the long- 

275 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

awaited signal. She must go to this Professor, demand an 
audience in their name and through her they would speak, 
convincing the Professor of their power and wisdom. He 
then would convene all the well-known scientists of the 
land whom, in turn, the spirits would convert, and plans 
could then be worked out in detail for the reformation of 
the world. 

She went accordingly, and found the Professor very 
willing to allow her to give some sittings to him and two 
others interested in the subject. Picture her now at her 
first real seance. Her trance was still in that incipient 
stage in which she was conscious of all that was said and 
done, and she must have been intensely alive to the fact 
that she was the centre of interest, the object of curiosity 
and wonder, if not of reverence, to these students so much 
older and more learned than she herself. 

The little circle sat about her quiet and sympathetic, 
jotting down her lisping nonsense about the origin of ether 
and atoms, relations of the hierarchies of angels to God, the 
proper laws for marriage and divorce, etc., until in a burst 
of confidence her heart was laid bare. Even in this gen- 
eration is the Christ to come again. To-day, in this coun- 
try, nay, in this very section of the country, is living the 
girl who shall be blessed above even the Holy Mother her- 
self in giving birth to the reincarnated Christ, who this time 
will come in glory and triumph. Who could this greater 
Mary be? Or rather, is it not she who long before the 
annunciation has dreamed of the glorified world which 
Christ will usher in? Not to this girl does it belong to 
claim such honour boldly, but ah, the hope is clinging warm 
about her heart. 

During the first few sessions the sitters were perhaps a 
little dazed by these utterly naive and inmost revelations, 
not of the spirit world, but of a simple and unabashed soul. 
But very gently at first, and then more insistently, Zezy 
brought to the front his message to the scientific world, and 

276 



THE MEDIUM IN GERM 

hinted that we ought to call together Edison and James and 
others. Then came a sitting in which Zezy was kindly but 
plainly told that we were still in some doubt as to his real 
existence, and that to prove it he must state to us facts 
which could not possibly have been known to this girl. 

This was a new idea to the control and made him 
thoughtful and silent for a time, but he soon professed him- 
self quite willing for such tests, and asked what he should 
do. "We suggested that he bring back the Founder of the 
University and have him tell us things known only between 
him and the Professor, and this Zezy agreed to try. 

Between this time and the next session, as this girl tells 
the story, the spirits brought the Founder to her, and he 
practised upon her so that he might come back easily at the 
next sitting. They also sought for the Professor's mother 
and a fictitious niece, whom he invented for the occasion. 
When the Founder first came he could only give her visions 
of his life among the Indians. (He probably never saw a 
live Indian.) The second time he entered her body but 
could not talk, but the third time he could talk. 

At the sitting the Founder appeared with all Zezy's 
characteristic tones and phrases, but was very sensitive to 
light and to draughts. He was in a bad humour, and did 
not manifest any pleasure at meeting the Professor again. 
He was called on for specific incidents, and was asked many 
questions, to most of which he said he did not know the 
answer, but to a few he offered tentative answers, as, 
1 c Wasn 't it thus ? ' ' " Seems to me I remember it thus. ' ' 
Out of about eighty points noted, four were correct, and 
three of these were known to the general public. The 
fourth was a personal incident of the Professor's getting a 
fall while in a bath, but the circumstances and time were 
entirely wrong. 

In the next session various detailed incidents were told 
the Professor about his childhood, none of which he could 
recall. His fictitious niece also appeared, and her appear- 

277 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

ance and characteristics were described in detail. The 
Founder then appeared again with more incidents, such as 
the Professor losing his cigar and getting on his hands and 
knees to hunt for it. Also, a dispute that the two had over 
the location of the boilers in one of the university buildings, 
which actually never occurred. 

Evidently, these incidents had been in the process of 
formation in the medium's mind, partly consciously and 
partly unconsciously, and these were given rather confi- 
dently and were not easily altered by suggestion. She 
pictures things to herself vividly and readily, and has come 
to believe in such ideas as divinatory and veridical, as any 
naive mind does, making the test of truth only the clearness 
and distinctness of the idea. 

But as the session advanced, and the medium got these 
preformed ideas out of her mind, she became susceptible to 
suggestion, and we built up, e. g., a detailed description of 
the Founder's picture gallery, his health, etc. Here every 
expression of ours, inflection, assent, or dissent, was reacted 
to in the most delicate manner, very largely, we believe, 
without the girl herself understanding the process, and 
believing that the visions which came according to our sug- 
gestions originated in the spirit world. 

The next session was at first taken up with similar de- 
tailed incidents in the life of the fictitious niece, conversa- 
tions she had had with her aunt and uncle, her girl friends, 
etc. Then came a pause, and the niece said hesitatingly 
that she had a message to be given to a certain Mr. B.; 
that his mother would like to have him come to a sitting 
to get the message, but that probably he would not be will- 
ing to come if he knew that this girl was the medium, unless 
perhaps the Professor would urge him to come. The fic- 
titious niece, who still purported to be controlling this girl, 
then went into a long explanation of why Mr. B. would 
not see this girl, and for nearly an hour recounted all sorts 
of gossip about the medium's family, displaying a knowl- 

278 



THE MEDIUM IN GERM 

edge of the girl's most intimate thoughts and feelings, 
which showed that the control served only as a rather flimsy 
veil to hide the medium's shame and confusion at making 
public these disgraceful things. Even so the pretence was 
not complete, for when the control began " I suppose you 
know all about it .... " her face flushed and remained so 
until she grew absorbed in the intricacies of her story. 

Now, the nib of the girl 's motive for telling us this fam- 
ily scandal lay in the fact that some years before, at about 
the time when her visions first began, she had become in- 
fatuated with a man twelve years older than herself. Even 
from the standpoint of her own great desire she could not 
say that he had ever given her the slightest encouragement 
or intimation of any affection, but she had been told by 
some acquaintances, doubtless in jest, that he was in love 
with her, and her own desires made her give credence to 
the statement. Why then did he not come to see her and 
tell her so ? There could be only one reason, and that was 
that he had heard the scandal about the family. Acting on 
this theory she and her mother seem to have written notes 
to the man and to Mr. B., trying to get Mr. B. to clear her 
mother to the man. We can only guess how much the two 
did, but some two years before our sittings the girl seems 
to have realised how foolish the efforts were and to have 
decided to let the whole matter drop. 

But Zezy (standing doubtless for her instinctive, sub- 
conscious desires) continued to maintain that the man 
really loved her, and that if only Mr. B. would just once 
meet her mother civilly the man would then call on this girl, 
and the way would be open for anything. 

This, then, was the underlying motive for these sittings. 
Mr. B. would be among the noted men to sit at her feet ; 
he would necessarily receive messages from his spirit 
mother telling him to treat this girl and her mother well, 
and so the spirits would smooth the path for true love and 
ring the marriage bells. 

279 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

We had a long and detailed conversation with the con- 
trols about this matter, we urging that it was of prime im- 
portance for this girl to take no more steps, but winning 
only a reluctant assent to our worldly wisdom. Finally, 
Sarah was dismissed, and at once Zezy arrived in an 
excited and boisterous frame of mind, but was finally 
calmed down and dismissed until some indefinite future 
sitting. 

This was the last session, but in the year that has 
elapsed since then the girl has called at the Professor's 
upon various pretexts. She began to hold sittings with a 
group of Psychical Researchers, but soon became disgusted 
with them because they would not talk to Zezy but simply 
listened, and she gave up the sittings. Whether she has 
taken any further steps in relation to the man we do not 
know. Again, upon making inquiries about her family we 
found that no such scandal was" generally known as she 
related, and the question has therefore been raised in our 
minds as to whether she is not suffering from a genuine de- 
lusion of persecution. This opinion is strengthened by Dr. 
Freud 's opinion, who had a session with her, and who con- 
siders her slightly paranoiac. 

The motivation of her mediumship was made very clear 
by our last seance. Her unrequited love is approximately 
coincident with the beginning of her mediumship, and the 
latter developed as an agency by which she might become 
attractive to this man. Her conviction that she had a pe- 
culiar mission had as its unconfessed and subconscious mo- 
tive her desire by her own attractions to counterbalance the 
scandal about her family. Her expectation of becoming 
the mother of the second Christ is a pathetic expression of 
the usually unconfessed and largely subconscious dreams of 
most young girls. 

The case is an excellent illustration of how shock may 
split the personality, and how in the subconscious self, quite 
unknown to the person the repressed desire may be at work 

280 



THE MEDIUM IN GERM 

creating a fantastic thought-scheme through which it may 
obtain gratification. In this case, the thwarted sexual de- 
sires found at least partial expression in the swagger and 
roughness of Zezy, and in the relief from the usual inhibi- 
tions in conversation. Her talk about marriage, as well as 
the tendency of some of her imagery to picture scenes not 
usually alluded to in society, showed plainly that in the 
depths of her mind sex was a very potent and constantly 
present factor. 

In another case which has come under my observation 
the personality has not been disrupted, but has been shaken 
by repeated shocks of the most trying sort, so as to give 
the person the sense of an alien personality, though she 
does not believe in it. Unfortunately, she has few notes 
made at the time, and the record is therefore incom- 
plete. 

When she was about fourteen years old her father lost 
his fortune, and she was obliged to take upon herself most 
of the responsibility for running the household. This was 
very hard both physically and emotionally. Previous to 
this, between seven and nine years, she had had an illness 
which had left some tendencies to paralysis of the bowel, 
and she has been troubled with this more or less ever since. 
She seems to have been in poor health from fourteen on, 
but there was no alteration of personality that is remem- 
bered until she was twenty. Then, while sweeping a room 
one morning, she suddenly entered into a state of ecstasy. 
She felt light and free, all imperfections disappeared be- 
fore a mysterious Beauty, and poetry sang itself in her 
mind, a song expressing gratitude to the source of this 
Infinite Beauty. 

Then for years she remembers nothing more of this sort. 
She married and had a son, but when he was fourteen 
months old he died. At the same time came financial and 
other troubles, until she was exhausted. One evening she 
went to bed with a headache, but began to weep, until the 
21 281 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

lines of an old hymn came into her mind, " Come, Holy 
Spirit, Heavenly dove, with all thy quickening powers. " 
Then came a great peace, with a vision of a dead aunt and 
cousin. Intense ecstasy followed, so intense that her body 
could not endure it and she screamed, bringing her husband 
and his sister to her. They found her rigid, with fixed 
eyes. They shook and rubbed her, and when she became 
conscious she exclaimed, " Oh, I have seen Jesus! " and 
went to sleep. In the morning she had no recollection 
of this. 

Again there was a lapse, this time of ten years, when 
diphtheria became epidemic in the family and their four- 
year-old daughter died. On their way to the cemetery the 
mother tried to compose herself, when suddenly she seemed 
to see the child floating radiantly in the air, and a great 
peace and joy came upon her. The vision remained until 
they entered the cemetery, the mother reasoning about it 
to herself, experimenting in order to make it disappear, etc. 
The feeling of strength and peace remained for weeks, 
while the husband and another child were ill with diph- 
theria, and the mother was put to the severest tests of en- 
durance. 

Not long after this a man interested in hypnotism and 
Spiritism began to call upon her husband and to discuss 
these matters in her presence. One evening they sat about 
a table, and her right arm began to twitch. When given 
pencil and paper she repeatedly wrote the word " Chan- 
ning." Nothing more happened that night. 

A week later they tried again without results, but her 
eyelids began to feel heavy, and she supposes that she was 
hypnotised without her knowledge. Her head drew back, 
her neck became rigid, and she began to impersonate their 
dead little daughter. Then she talked like her husband's 
dead mother. A stage of great happiness followed, but 
suddenly a vision of a skull frightened her, and was suc- 
ceeded by an intense hate of the hypnotist and the feeling 

282 



THE MEDIUM IN GERM 

that she was taken possession of by some frenzied creature 
to wreak vengeance upon him. She told her husband that 
the man must go home, and after a walk in the yard and 
a night's rest she felt like herself, but was so frightened 
by the experience that she would not try it again. 

About eight years later she saw a piece of statuary 
which again put her into a state of ecstasy, with the realisa- 
tion of Infinite Beauty. And two years later she began to 
fall into the trance state while asleep, rousing her husband 
by impersonations of dead persons. She would act and 
gesture like the person until her husband guessed the right 
one, and would then begin to talk. 

She has done this occasionally for friends, and has 
doubtless had other experiences which she has forgotten, 
but for some time she has let it drop, because she is not sure 
of its effect upon her health or efficiency, nor is she con- 
vinced that it is anything more than an abnormal manifes- 
tation, although the character of the visions naturally raises 
in her mind the question of spirit communication. 

Here, as in other cases, we have the same diathesis. 
This lady is highly sensitive and impressionable, with vivid 
imagery and feelings of premonition, etc. She is subject 
to fluctuations of feeling, without causes satisfactory to 
herself, and these seem to be the beginning of the sense of 
an alien personality. But in her case the normal self has 
never been destroyed, in spite of the great strains, because, 
I think, her own thoughtfulness and her husband's have 
prevented the encouragement of the spiritistic manifes- 
tations. 

On the other hand, what are we to say regarding the 
visions and the realisation of Infinite Beauty ! These, it is 
testified, give not only peace but strength. They are un- 
doubtedly of the same character as the ecstasy of the mys- 
tics and the Neo-Platonists. We do not know as much as 
we should of the nervous accompaniments of this state, nor 
even of the details of the way to attain it, but one thing 

283 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

does seem to be characteristic of the attainment of the state 
by the great mystics of all cults and religions. Preceding 
the Vision or Rapture, there is always a stage of prepara- 
tion, of intense longing and concentration, and this finally 
breaks through the limitations of the old personality, and 
gives the sense of enlargement, freedom, peace, etc. The 
process is not, therefore, one of dissociation of the self, and 
consequent narrowing of the normal self, as is the case in 
the mediumistic trance, but is a genuine broadening of the 
self, a calling out of previously unused powers, and the 
sense of added strength is the natural accompaniment of 
it. Probably this means, on the neural side, that the intense 
activity of some brain centres cannot be confined to the 
ordinary channels and so breaks new ones for itself, thus 
connecting centres previously severed and giving added 
associations and motor connections. It thus has many com- 
mon elements with the learning process, and I think that 
any one will testify, who has had both experiences, that the 
feelings of satisfaction and enlargement upon the successful 
solution of some difficult and interesting problem are sim- 
ilar to the feelings after ecstasy, though they are much 
less in degree. 

The form of the ecstasy, whether a Vision or Sense of 
Presence or Rapture, probably depends upon personal idio- 
syncrasies. 

If this analysis is correct such a process is not abnormal, 
but valuable, and it is one which our churches should es- 
pecially facilitate, since God in the manifestation of Christ 
is assumed to be the supreme object of contemplation and 
longing. 

The writings and lives of the great mystics bear elo- 
quent testimony to the value of this state in increasing 
their efficiency, and while the tendency to it seems to differ 
greatly with the individual, the psychologist can hardly 
question that in modern life this element is not sufficiently 
represented, that in our haste to render social service many 

284 



THE MEDIUM IN GERM 

of us are working without a clear Vision, and are really 
splitting our lives and selves instead of developing a larger 
social self. So we find nervous, worried philanthropists and 
social workers — to say nothing of other classes of people — 
where we should find directness and effectiveness. 



CHAPTER XVIII 
THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

In discussing the development of mediumship an ac- 
count of Mrs. Verrall's automatic writing should not be 
omitted, since it is one of the very rare cases in which the 
medium has made a study of herself, and it is therefore 
unusually interesting and suggestive. Her account (Pro- 
ceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. xx, 
432 pp.) covers nearly four years of writing, from March 
5, 1901, to December 31, 1904, and includes 306 pieces 
under uniform conditions and sixteen others. 

Mrs. Verrall has been a member of the Society from its 
early days, and is a lecturer on Latin and Greek at Newn- 
ham College. She has always been one of the active mem- 
bers of the Society, and has tried various experiments. 
With crystal gazing she could never attain any success, 
but she was more successful with the planchette if some 
one else helped, although the writing so obtained never 
contained " anything of interest.'' "When she tried the 
planchette alone she obtained only meaningless movements 
or else letters of her own name — " ervrr." In January, 
1901, she made systematic attempts with the planchette, 
but was unsuccessful, and finally tried to obtain writing 
by holding a pencil while at the same time she read a book. 
This, too, was a failure, the writing giving only words from 
the book or characters from a brass tablet in front of her. 
She dropped the matter until March, and then tried again, 
this time allowing her mind to follow passively all sugges- 
tions. In this way she obtained both Greek and English 

286 



THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

words, not entirely without sense but not very coherent. 
On the second trial she suddenly felt a strong impulse to 
hold the pencil between the thumb and first finger instead 
of in her usual fashion, and then the hand wrote about 
eighty words in Latin, which made no general sense though 
intelligible in places. The writing improved gradually, 
and at length she began to get messages purporting to 
come from the dead. 

Usually she writes twice a week, but not invariably. 

After December 14, 1902, Mrs. Verrall sent the writing 
to Sir Oliver Lodge as it was produced, keeping copies for 
herself, and he put them away for later reference and veri- 
fication, if any of the messages in them should later on 
assume importance. 

Mrs. Verrall's account of her sensations while writing 
is extremely suggestive. She does not see the paper, and 
although she may perceive some words singly she does not 
get their connection with others, and so gets no meaning 
out of the writing as it goes on. Often she does not even 
know what language she has been using, so evanescent is 
the memory of the isolated words. At various times she 
has tried, immediately after finishing, to reproduce even 
the sense of the writing, but has been unable to do so, save 
in one case. She usually writes when alone, in a dim light, 
and free from interruptions, but sometimes she has done it 
in a train. She finds herself very sleepy during the writ- 
ing, and several times she has lost consciousness of her sur- 
roundings. These tendencies seem to increase as the writ- 
ing develops. 

Again, although she does not remember the writing, she 
seems to be conscious of it at least in some cases, one 
message, for instance, making her weep without know- 
ing why. 

We will omit in the main her careful discussion of the 
form and style of the writing, merely saying that Eng- 
lish, Latin, and Greek are all used freely, but modern lan- 

287 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

guages very little, although Mrs. Verrall is even better ac- 
quainted with French than with ancient languages, and 
constantly dreams in it. We will pass rather to the content 
of the script, which has the most interest for us. 

One of the characteristics of the writing, especially at 
the beginning, is that it contains many aphorisms, or sen- 
tences in the form of aphorisms or epigrams, which are 
nearly or quite meaningless, like " accomplishment is bet- 
ter than success " — the sort of thing one makes up in 
dreams. 

Familiar quotations also appear very frequently, the 
stringing together of words of similar sounds, even when 
they make no sense, and puns. 

There is also a tendency at times to make verses, a tend- 
ency which first appeared in Mrs. Verrall some years before 
when, on recovering from an illness, she sometimes found 
herself half unconsciously making up verse — a thing she 
never does when fully normal. 

The script consists for the most part of unsigned re- 
marks, not addressed to any particular person, but often 
written in the first person and addressed to a " you." 
Sometimes it seems to be a dialogue between two persons, 
and sometimes it is addressed by a " me " to some one, and 
signed with a name. 

On April 3, 1901, about a month after she began sys- 
tematic experimenting, there is the first conversation, the 
script containing two styles of script for the two speakers, 
but the content being uninteresting. 

In all there were 148 signatures or attempts at them, 
12 being incomplete, 44 unidentified, 9 unintelligible, and 
83 identified. Of these 83, 1 purported to be from a liv- 
ing person, 48 were names of dead persons, and 34 were 
signs or symbols for dead persons. 

Much of what is said in the writing consists of comments 
on the writing, difficulties in doing it, desirable tests, etc., 
and in general exhortations, advice, etc. We will not con- 

288 



THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

sider these in any detail but will pass at once to the mes- 
sages purporting to come from the dead which seem to 
have evidential value. 

Unverifiable statements are, of course, numerous, and 
over these we will not linger, curious though some of 
them are. 

With regard to verifiable statements, Mrs. Verrall ad- 
mits very frankly that in some instances the statement may 
have come from her own subliminal self, she having for- 
gotten that she had ever known it. This source of error, 
evidently, cannot always be eliminated, although there will 
be cases where from the very nature of the case she could 
not have known it. This connection or lack of connection 
of the script with the conscious memory is very interesting. 
For instance, the script refers frequently to a paper written 
by Mr. Verrall, and well known to her twenty-five years 
before, but almost forgotten, but through all the writing 
she has found only five references to recent events. Ref- 
erences to things which she had read six, ten, or twenty 
years before and had forgotten are more common. In 
eight cases she finds a connection between the script and a 
certain very vivid sort of dream that she occasionally has, 
the writing personality connecting itself with the dream 
content. 

The character of the script lends itself easily to sta- 
tistical methods, and Mrs. Verrall has summarised it as 
follows : 

There were 28 references to miscellaneous persons, of 
which 17 claim to produce verifiable matter, but only 5 
or perhaps 6 are counted by Mrs. Verrall as correct; 186 
references are to persons known to be interested in the 
script. Of these, 61 do not claim to be evidential and 125 
do so claim. Of the 125, 40 fail to be evidential, through 
vagueness, etc., 24 are definitely false, and 41 are classed as 
correct. These 41 successes are statements of facts un- 
known to Mrs. Verrall, to the best of her belief, and fall 

289 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

therefore into the same class as do, in Mrs. Piper's sittings, 
the statements unknown to the sitter, but later verified. 
We will, therefore, take them up in detail. Mrs. Verrall 
herself omits three or perhaps four correct statements 
about different friends, but beginning p. 180, Proceedings 
of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. 20, she discusses 
these evidential statements, which we summarise. 

1. That a book with a monogram, part in pencil, hard 
to read, had been mislaid but found, and that Miss Har- 
rison knows. Miss Harrison had lost and found a note- 
book, but it had no monogram. 

2. Miss Harrison would know the date, February 6th, 
long ago now. This was the birthday of a sister who had 
died thirty years before. 

3. A reference, without name, to Mr. Marsh as connect- 
ing the old world and the new. Later he unexpectedly 
went to the United States. 

4. At Mrs. Verrall's first meeting with Mr. Constable 
her automatic hand drew a chain, and made reference to 
a carnelian heart, and a few days later it referred to an 
old-fashioned portrait of a lady with three curls on either 
side her face, bare neck, gray dress, to whom the heart 
belonged. Mr. Constable did have a portrait of his mother 
corresponding somewhat to this, and she had a chain with 
a locket on it, but no heart. The dress colour is not known. 

5. It was stated that Mrs. Dew Smith, " Alice," had 
found a little house near a wood with a sunny garden. 
She had actually been wanting such a house but had not 
found it. 

6. Mrs. Smith was assured that the pen would be found, 
and it turned out that she had lost a package of pens which 
was found several months later. 

7. She was assured that her plan was a good one, and 
that she should not be deterred by criticism. It appeared 
that Mrs. Smith had wanted to build a cottage, but had 
been dissuaded strongly by her friends. 

290 



THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

8. Mr. Verrall tried some experiments in thought-trans- 
ference, without Mrs. Verrall's knowledge, soon after she 
began automatic writing (p. 156). He wrote down the 
three Greek words, fiovoiroyXov Is dw, " to the one horse 
dawn," referring to a college incident unknown to Mrs. 
Verrall, the idea being to see if she could be made to re- 
produce the phrase. The words were put into an envelope 
and put into a drawer in his desk, and he said nothing to 
any one about the experiment. About two months later the 
hand wrote, ' ' Five stars in the east that is not right. . . . 
Show it to your husband." She showed this to him on 
August 1st, and he remarked that it interested him, but 
said nothing to point to any experiment. She knew that 
he was observing some of her writing with especial inter- 
est, but had no idea just why. On July 31st came a Latin 
phrase, in which the Greek word ftovoxnwos was interpo- 
lated, which Mr. Verrall thought might be an attempt at 
fiovo-n-Xov, and - l alba, ' ' which is also sometimes translated 
dawn. 

August 13th there were references to a crowing cock, 
and a motto about dawn, and between August 13th and 
September 20th fifteen more attempts were made, some- 
times at meaning, sometimes at words, sometimes by allu- 
sions to associated ideas, but no reference to horse until 
September 18th, when Mr. Verrall, sitting in a separate 
room from her while she was writing, fixed his thought 
upon horse, and she wrote a phrase descriptive of goodly 
horses. But she did not get the exact phrase at any time, 
and the attempts ceased abruptly when she discovered that 
he had been experimenting, though even then she did not 
know just what the experiment was. 

9. Another instance of apparent telepathy with Mr. Ver- 
rall occurred when the hand wrote, " The chapel is too 
light,. . . .Cantuar is sedile ubi nunc gentium? . ..." On 
questioning Mr. Verrall about this he said that he thought 
that the original design of the chapel in question had been 

291 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

destroyed by adding an aisle later, and the Latin reminded 
him of an incident where the inscription was misread. 

10. Again, after a reference to Mr. Verrall, the hand 
wrote, " to the dark tower came who? ask him who and 
where? " This evidently referred to " Childe Roland," 
and probably to Browning's poem, since there a context is 
given. Mr. Verrall, it turned out, had been reading Brown- 
ing and " Childe Roland " that day. 

There are very few incidents in these ten cases which 
the subconscious mind may not have known or inferred 
from all sorts of subtle suggestions which Mrs. Verrall or 
any one else would not notice. This might especially apply 
to the experiments of her husband on the phrase " one 
horse dawn." It might happen that in these months of 
intercourse, any references to dawn in their talk would 
call up in him a subtle shade of expression or inflection 
which would leave its subconscious impress upon Mrs. Ver- 
rall and reappear in the automatic writing. This also might 
be true of 9 and 10. In the case of 10, though Mr. Ver- 
rall had not said he intended to read Browning, and per- 
haps even if he did not definitely plan to do so, there 
might have been a certain mood, certain subtle turns of 
thought which to the subconscious mind of his wife would 
be associated with Browning reading, etc. 

11. August 31, 1903, the hand wrote that Hugh would 
not go abroad next month, that there would be a hurried 
journey south and then a long break, and that she would 
know before Christmas. " Hugh " had expected to go to 
Italy in September, but actually went in October. The 
Verralls had contemplated a hurried journey, but actually 
took a leisurely one. 

The hand, therefore, was half right only, and we cannot 
tell what indications there may have been at the time of 
the writing that " Hugh " would be delayed in his trip. 

12. The hand told Mrs. Verrall to note the name of the 
first acquaintance she met and tell her husband. About 

292 



THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

11.20 a.m. she met an acquaintance named White, in Lon- 
don, and on telling her husband he said that he had seen 
the same man in Cambridge at four, an impossible thing 
if Mrs. Yerrall really saw him. So Mrs. Verrall raises 
telepathy as an explanation of this, but again why may 
we not suppose merely coincidence? 

13. The script wrote: " Sidgwick wants to say some- 
thing about a message — a missing book. It ought to be 
found. It had dates in it — a little book kept by accident — 
there was something else in it. It fastens with a strap — 
most of the leaves are torn out, but March and May are 
there. Mrs. Sidgwick must look." Mrs. Sidgwick later 
found a book like this containing, on the few remaining 
leaves, dated references to an incident to which Professor 
Sidgwick had destroyed all other references before his 
death, leaving these only by accident. 

14. Various attempts were made referring to Mrs. Sidg- 
wick, to describe a certain room where there was a book 
lying under a blue sofa, low down, wrapped up, near a 
sweet-scented jar, and with an armchair near, with books all 
about and a portrait in a frame. After considerable diffi- 
culty this was recognised as referring to Mrs. Sidgwick 's 
room at Newnham College. Under the blue drapery of the 
window-seat she kept a box full of important papers, and 
on going through this box she found among them a pri- 
vately printed pamphlet, wrapped up and sealed, which 
she had taken charge of after Professor Sidgwick 's death, 
but had forgotten all about. Inquiry had previously been 
made of her, in April or May, about this, and she had said 
that she did not have it. 

Why can we not suppose that Mrs. Verrall, who knew 
the Sidgwicks very well, had at some time heard inci- 
dental references to these things? This is not outside the 
possibilities, and perhaps not outside the probabilities. 

15. July 23d came a message that some one was coming 
over the sea to Lodge, and that something of importance 

293 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

had happened while Mrs. Verrall was away, which had to 
do with Hodgson. Sir Oliver said later that something 
of importance had happened to him, and that some one had 
come from over the sea about it, arriving July 28th, five 
days after the writing. But the only connection with Hodg- 
son was that later he went back on the same ship with this 
person. 

Hodgson 's presence in England, known to Mrs. Verrall, 
doubtless was the starting point in Mrs. Verrall's subcon- 
scious mind for this writing, and it needs no other ex- 
planation. 

16. But again, July 30th, the script seemed to refer to 
this incident again, saying, ' ' You have it not quite right . . . 
The name is wrong. Thaumas is more like it but I can't 
get it, ' ' and the next day Sir Oliver received a letter from 
a man named Thomas asking for a certain position in the 
Society for Psychical Research, and giving Mr. Verrall as 
a reference. At the time of the writing Mrs. Verrall knew 
nothing of this, she is confident. 

But again, how are we to exclude the possibility of sub- 
conscious indications? The same question applies to the 
two following cases : 

17. A message came to tell Mr. Piddington that some- 
thing had happened to Rosie Thompson at school, but not 
to be alarmed. It turned out that Rosie was in bed at 
school with cold and neuralgia. 

18. A writer, supposed to be Dr. Sidgwick, referred 
to a play connected with children, and dated long before, 
which was among his MSS. About the same time, Mrs. 
Sidgwick came across such a play, but with other names 
than those given in the script, and of a different appear- 
ance and size. 

In both these cases we need only suppose some infer- 
ence and the revival of submerged memories. 

19. This message came: " Give it to her — yarn a tan- 
gled skein — Veridical is the case. — see what you have 

294 



THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

said." The next day Mrs. Verrall was called upon to in- 
vestigate an apparently veridical dream. 

But Mrs. Verrall 's interest in veridical dreams, halluci- 
nations, etc., may have been revived by some occurrence, 
and in any case is so permanent that a reference to it in 
the writing does not indicate anything unusual. 

20. One day, about 12.40 p.m., the hand wrote a vivid 
description of a fire then going on, in which pictures were 
destroyed. In the next day's paper Mrs. Verrall found 
an account of a fire at an artist's club, where over sixty 
pictures were burned, which occurred about 1.20 a.m. 

The coincidence about the pictures is curious, but again 
one would like to know whether anything had occurred to 
make Mrs. Verrall think of such a possibility? 

21. On her way home one day the hand wrote, " The 
letter is at your house that explains, good guidance, and 
the waters of Omar. ' ' The first mail the next morning con- 
tained a letter, from a friend, of good wishes for an ex- 
pected journey and a copy of " Omar Khayyam." 

But we are not told what " explanation " or " good 
guidance " was contained in this letter, nor whether there 
was not some reason to expect a letter from this friend, 
as well as the ' ' Omar. ' ' 

22. Mrs. Verrall notes some curious agreements in 
phrases between the automatic writing and some Neo-Pla- 
tonic writers, which we will not consider in detail here. She 
was also instructed not to try for writing when the wind 
was in the East, but in the West, and later found that this 
was one of the regular instructions given to Neo-Platonic 
neophytes who wished to attain ecstasy. 

All these, however, while curious, may be referable to 
knowledge forgotten, which is always very large in amount 
with any constant reader, such as Mrs. Verrall seems to be. 
The same remark holds with regard to ' ' La Saisiaz, ' ' which 
Mrs. Verrall believes she had not read, but which she may 
have read and forgotten about. I should be very unwilling 

295 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

to make any assertion of that sort about the shorter poems 
of any modern poet, because one reads so many things in 
odd moments which very soon sink into the subconscious 
memory. The incident is this: 

23. In 1904 the hand wrote remarks about Professor 
Sidgwick, a letter of his about the Wanderer on the Way, 
the Passionate Pilgrim, Hope's vision, etc. Nearly two 
years later, upon reading a letter of Professor Sidgwick 's, 
in which he states his sympathy with Browning's views on 
immortality as expressed in "La Saisiaz," Mrs. Verrall 
read the poem and found the general resemblance between 
it and the above phrases. 

The script also claimed definitely to know the contents 
of the sealed letter which Myers left with Lodge to be 
opened after his death, and gave the message, but gave it 
entirely wrong. 

24. Various partly successful attempts were made to 
describe a ring belonging to Archbishop Benson, which 
Mrs. Verrall was sure she had never seen. But here again 
is the possibility that she was mistaken. 

25. At various times the script attempted a word to be 
sent as a test to Dr. Hodgson, finally giving the words 
" Ariadnes stella coronaria," and making an allusion to 
another constellation, Berenice's hair. Dr. Hodgson in 
reply said that he had thought about syringas in connec- 
tion with her script, and that syringas had a special sig- 
nificance for him. Now, the Latin name for syringa is 
Philadelphus coronarius, and the combined reference to 
Ariadne's crown and Berenice's hair is supposed by Mrs. 
Verrall to be intended to recall Philadelphus or brotherly 
love. 

This is rather far-fetched, however. 

26. In various places references were made to Plato's 
1 ' Symposium, ' ' which Mrs. Verrall believes she had not then 
read, and in one she was told to look in Myers's book for 
an explanation of Plato's doctrine. She took this to refer 

296 



THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

to ' ' Human Personality, ' ' and when the book came out she 
found in it a discussion of Plato's views on love. Mrs. 
Verrall is confident that she never knew that Mr. Myers 
intended to connect love with telepathy, but her memory 
may be at fault, or she may have inferred it from her 
general knowledge of his views. 

The prophecies that came true are as follows: 

27. The script wrote, " MAIMENT IS WITHIN on 
the right hand side as you look — the window is behind so 
it is not very plain to read. But he knows it. ' ' 

Previously the script had produced Madment 

Maidment 
Evan 

awnsley November 
1857. 
Three weeks later, while visiting some friends in Winches- 
ter, the host at breakfast one morning read sections of a 
letter from a friend named Rawnsley, and on going into a 
shop, two days later, Mrs. Verrall noticed a bag on the 
wall with the name Maidment on it. 

28. The Greek letter sigma often appeared in the script 
as if with some special significance, and Mrs. Verrall began 
to investigate the use of symbolical letters among the Neo- 
Platonists. The writing one day referred to didaskalia 
and automata as containing doctrines, and later she found 
that there was a book, " The Didascalia, ' ' which discussed 
the use of symbolic letters. 

We wish that we knew whether Mrs. Verrall had ever 
visited Winchester before, for, if she had, 27 might be sim- 
ply a breaking out of the subconscious. In all probability 
this is the case with 28. It may easily be that she had in 
some earlier reading seen references to " The Didascalia " 
and had forgotten them. 

29. After a reference to one of her husband's family 
the hand prophesied, " Great changes all will see in the 
next year, more than one break in the close family. ' ' With- 

22 297 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

in the year an aunt died and a nephew went to New 
Zealand. 

30. Later the hand said that some one would see all the 
constellations, and that a previous prophecy would be ful- 
filled on September 19th. The only unfulfilled prophecy 
referred to the nephew, and on September 22d this nephew 
sailed and doubtless saw all the constellations on his trip. 

But 29 and 30 refer to the immediate family, and we do 
not know what indications there may have been of the 
desire of the nephew to make a change, or of the aunt's 
health. 

31. About 11 p.m., on May 11th, came a message in which 
it was said in Latin that " chalk sticking to the feet got 
over the difficulty/ ' ending in a drawing of a grinning 
bird. The next day the newspaper described some experi- 
ments made the previous night, between twelve and three, 
to discover the cause of certain sounds. Chalk was scat- 
tered on the floor, and after various happenings the 
watchers found in the chalk a bird's footprints. 

32. This message came on December 11th : ' ' Marmontel. 
he was reading on a sofa or in bed — there was only a can- 
dle 's light. . . . The book was lent not his own — he talked 
about it. ' ' Later, references were made to Passy or Fleury, 
and it was said that the book was in two volumes in old- 
fashioned binding and print. 

Later, it appeared that a friend, Mr. Marsh, had car- 
ried a volume of Marmontel from the London Library to 
Paris, read it in the way described, on February 20th and 
21st, and talked about it with his friends. One of these 
evenings the chapter read contained references to Fleury 
and Passy. The edition was a three-volume one, and not 
very modern in binding. 

33. Reference was made to a cross on five stone steps 
with a fresh green wreath about it, located on a hillside in 
the open, made of white stone, with no inscription. The 
steps were old, the cross new. Later, Mrs. Verrall found 

298 



THE CASE OF MRS. VERRALL 

that a friend had erected such a cross on old steps, but 
the names given by the script were all wrong, and it was 
not near the sea. The script said that the wreath had an 
inscription on it " In honour A. J. C," and the initials 
of the person were really A. H. C, but it is not known 
whether such an inscription was tied on the wreath. This 
account was written by the hand three months before the 
dedication of the cross, and about nine before the wreath 
was put on the cross. 

These last three prophecies are to me the most curious 
of any in all the records I have studied. The references 
are so definite, and at the same time are to conditions and 
persons so relatively unknown, that it is hard to see how 
they could have been based upon subconscious suggestions. 
For the present I must simply leave them unexplained. 

In general we may say about Mrs. Verrall's test mes- 
sages that they are in most cases open to the criticisms 
made by Yaschide in his discussion on Les Hallucinations 
Telepathiques. Her messages were usually to or about in- 
timate friends, and their subject-matter referred to sub- 
jects which she may have known something about, but have 
forgotten. The fact that the persons concerned do not re- 
member the events is no proof — as Psychical Researchers 
should be the first to admit — because we do forget the 
larger part of our experiences so far as our voluntary mem- 
ory is concerned. In short, it seems as if we had here, if 
only we could work it out in detail, an extremely interesting 
and suggestive case of subconscious memory and inference. 

How well worth while it would be if, after any given 
instance of automatic writing, Mrs. Verrall could be given 
association tests and subjected to a thorough trial of the 
psycho-analytic method in order to bring up all the sub- 
merged trains of thought connected with the writing. 

The characteristics of the script read like a summary of 
Jung and Riklin's Diagnostische Assoziationsstudien (J. 
fur Psy. u. Neur., Bd. 3, 1904), in which they detail the 

299 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

marks of reactions that accompany suppressed feeling 
states: quotations, puns, sound reactions, meaningless re- 
actions — these all indicate underlying complexes of feeling 
which would certainly be brought to the surface under 
proper conditions, and which would explain the entire con- 
tent of the script without any reference to spirits. 

Again, the fact that most of the references which can 
be traced to events in Mrs. Verrall's own life are to events 
years before, and not to recent ones, hints again at sup- 
pressed feeling complexes connected with some shock, for 
Jung and 'Freud found exactly this to be the case with 
their patients. 

Before leaving this most interesting case, let us note 
once more that, as always, the non-evidential and meaning- 
less portions are very much more numerous than the so- 
called tests. Out of 322 pieces of writing, each containing 
many items, and running over nearly four years, only 41 
references or items are classed by Mrs. Verrall herself as 
correct. Is it not probable that these seem mysterious only 
because we do not know enough about them ? 



CHAPTER XIX 
THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

No theory which has to explain a personality can be 
simple if it is to be true. Nor can we expect in the pres- 
ent unsettled condition of both psychological and psychi- 
atrical theory to offer any explanation which will be sat- 
isfactory to all specialists. We are also hampered by the 
fact that the phenomena which might normally appear in 
the Piper case are to some degree veiled by the spiritistic 
theory which has so largely shaped the trance personalities, 
and by the fact that we cannot experiment with the case 
nor urge the control of the waking self to confession as 
Freud is able to do in his capacity of physician. Neverthe- 
less, I believe that from our own sittings and the published 
records a good prima facie case can be made out to show 
that Mrs. Piper's controls and those of other honest medi- 
ums are but cases of secondary personality, and nothing 
more, a splitting off from the central self of a part which 
may take on almost any shape. 1 

1. First let us review the development of this trance 
state, as far as we can get at it. In the cases of secondary 
personalities discussed by the Freud school, Janet, and 
Prince, and Sidis, although these writers differ considerably 
in various respects, all agree that the starting point of the 
split in the self appears to consist in some sort of shock, 
affecting a naturally somewhat unstable nervous system. 
In the case of Mrs. Piper, we know that at the age of six- 

i See also Bruce, " Riddle of Personality," pp. 212 et seq. Bruce, 
however, also invokes telepathy. 

301 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

teen she had the accident with the ice-sled, at which time 
she saw a flood of light as she became unconscious, and that 
not long after an ovarian tumor developed. We do not 
know whether there was some earlier shock, between seven 
and nine years, as Freud believes is always the case, nor 
what her nervous condition as a child was. From the age 
of sixteen, however, her health could certainly not be de- 
scribed as vigorous, and the diseased condition of the re- 
productive organs seems to be closely connected with her 
mediumistic activities, as shown before. Let us recapitulate 
briefly. Shortly after the birth of her first child she first 
went into trance at the house of a blind medium whom she 
had gone to consult about her tumor. 

Between this time and the spring of 1893 the tumor was 
an ever-present factor, doubtless keeping Mrs. Piper in a 
state of nervous tension, if not of actual pain. During these 
years she was being tried out in this country and England, 
Phinuit being the chief control, and these sittings being the 
most evidential of any in her career. This is especially 
true of the Pelham set, in the fall of 1892, when Pelham 
was proving his identity — a piece of work considered by 
the Researchers as perhaps the most wonderful of any — 
and when Mrs. Piper's health was steadily growing worse, 
so that in the spring of 1893 she had an operation at which 
the tumor, together with the diseased Fallopian tubes and 
ovaries, was removed. 

After this her health improved somewhat, but again 
became worse in the fall and winter of 1895 and 1896, 
and in the early part of 1896 she had a second operation for 
hernia. This is coincident with the appearance and devel- 
opment of the Imperator group of controls, but there was 
no such outburst of activity as in the previous case. After 
the second operation Mrs. Piper 's health improved steadily, 
and the trance messages deteriorated, in my opinion. The 
Hyslop sittings have practically no " test messages," and 
we, as well as many Researchers themselves, differ in toto 

302 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

from Hyslop as to their evidential value. Until the appear- 
ance of Hodgson in 1905, as a new control, and the cross- 
correspondence tests, at which Myers is the officiating spirit, 
which run through 1906, there were no great manifesta- 
tions, and Podmore says specifically that the messages de- 
teriorated steadily from 1900 on. 

But, in 1905, Mrs. Piper was forty -six years old, and the 
changes of the climacteric — which persist to some degree 
even where the reproductive organs have been in part re- 
moved — had probably begun to make their appearance, and 
so were coincident with the increased activity shown by the 
Hodgson and Myers controls. 

Surely this coincidence between the heightened trance- 
power and the heightened nervous tension and physical con- 
dition is not likely to be purely accidental. In origin, there- 
fore, the trance states of Mrs. Piper do not seem to be 
different from many cases of secondary personality cited 
by writers on that subject. 

2. We have, however, what seems to be a profound dif- 
ference between the two in the fact that Mrs. Piper brings 
on the trance voluntarily, and says that she has never fallen 
into it spontaneously, either while awake or asleep. This 
raises the question of the genuineness of the trance, and of 
the relation of the trance states to hysterical attacks. Janet 
lays down as the three marks of hystericals — suggestibility, 
absent-mindedness, and alternations. Here we are espe- 
cially concerned with the first. More than all other people 
a hysterical is suggestible, and presents in his disease the 
symptoms which he is expected to present. Charcot's pa- 
tients present the classical illustration of this. Charcot 
had a very definite theory of hysteria and its symptoms, 
which his patients soon learned, so that in his hospital the 
patients invariably showed these symptoms, while the pa- 
tients of physicians of different beliefs showed variations 
from Charcot's types. It took a long time to demonstrate 
that Charcot's three stages were purely the result of his 

303 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

suggestions, but this is now generally accepted. Similarly, 
before Charcot, and in cases where the disease is little 
known by the patient's friends, the patient gradually de- 
veloped a set of symptoms according to her milieu. One of 
the most common of these formerly was the fit or convul- 
sion, in which the patient sometimes frothed, seemed to 
grow insensible, anaesthetic in spots, etc. Nowadays, som- 
nambulism or a trancelike sleep is common. In these cases, 
after the attack the patient has no recollection of it, but 
the patient may work herself up to it by recalling some 
aggravating or irritating circumstances, by recalling the 
original shock which brought on the hysteria, or perhaps by 
more or less unconsciously reproducing voluntarily the 
physical tensions which accompanied the original shock. 

Mrs. Piper does not say what she thinks of on entering 
the trance. She says that she tries not to think of anything. 
Neither does she admit that she voluntarily alters her 
breathing, but the first and most marked change that occurs 
is the much slower and apparently fuller respiration. At 
present there are few convulsive movements, only a little 
twitching of the face and fingers, but in the beginning — 
and this is the significant thing — there were strong con- 
vulsions, with groans, sobs, etc. Is it not possible that in 
these convulsions she lived through again the accident with 
the ice-sled or some earlier unknown experience? These 
convulsions, as I understand, lasted until the Imperator 
group took possession, at about which time also the writ- 
ing became the habitual mode of expression instead of 
speaking. For something over ten years then — the years 
when Mrs. Piper's health was poorest and the messages 
were most valuable — the preliminary convulsions persisted. 

The Imperator group, however, systematically discour- 
aged these manifestations. Here we revert again to the 
suggestibility of the controls. First let us note that during 
the years from the fall of 1895 to the fall of 1896, when the 
Imperator group was slowly developing, Mrs. Piper gave 

304 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

very few sittings on account of her extremely poor health, 
and to Mrs. Piper and those interested in her future the 
prospects must have looked very dubious. The waste of 
strength and energy in the convulsions was a source of 
anxiety, and made Mrs. Piper unwilling to go into the 
trance, and though the published records give few indica- 
tions the controls must have been urged at various times 
not to injure the medium 's body or use up ' ' the light ' ' in 
taking possession. Mrs. Piper's increasing anxiety about 
her health and future finally found adequate and dramatic 
expression in the demand made by the Imperator group in 
January of 1897, that Hodgson should give them the man- 
agement of her and that they would take care of her ' ' bat- 
tered machine ' ' and patch it up so that it would last as long 
as possible. From this time on the conditions necessary for 
health, such as frequency and length of sittings, are set 
by the controls. As we should expect if the control is really 
a secondary personality and so very suggestible, these con- 
ditions are not always for the good of Mrs. Piper, but often 
reflect the desires of the sitter, and perhaps allow him to 
inflict even quite severe pain without remonstrance from 
the control. But when the control is left to itself, to its 
own narrow range of consciousness, it is hyper aesthetic to 
various bodily conditions which would be unrecognised in 
the normal state, because the sensations would be sub- 
merged in the numerous other sensations streaming in upon 
the waking self. In such cases, therefore, the control might 
feel the developing symptoms of a disease, headache, etc., 
and might be able to give a warning and save the medium 
from the attack. In this case it would seem to the medium 
in the normal state and to the sitter to display supernormal 
wisdom, while when distracted by suggestions from the sit- 
ter it might be indifferent or callous to the medium's 
interests. 

The gradual reduction of the convulsions and the build- 
ing up of the present symptoms on entering and coming 

305 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

out of the trance might, if we but had complete records, 
be shown to be the outcome of a continual give and take be- 
tween sitter and medium, just as the symptoms appearing 
in any given hysterical case are built up in this way. 
As confirmatory of this we have Mrs. Piper 's own statement 
that the trance has never come on in sleep or when she was 
alone, just as any hysterical attack seems to need the stimu- 
lus of some one's presence to induce it. 

3. Again, a rich chapter for the student of suggestion 
lies in the creation of the characteristics of the various con- 
trols. Hyslop believes that one of the strongest arguments 
against the theory of secondary personalities is the fact 
that in Mrs. Piper's case the personages are so varied, 
whereas secondary personalities are usually few in number. 

This difference, however, seems to me to reflect only the 
difference in the milieu of Mrs. Piper and of the ordinary 
and admittedly abnormal case of secondary personality. 
"When a girl first experiences such a change of personality 
her family is usually alarmed and calls in the doctor. They 
do not like the change, and they repress the new self as far 
as they can. The secondary self is discouraged from the 
beginning. Mrs. Piper, however, first entered the trance at 
a medium's, in the presence of Spiritualists, one of them 
her father-in-law, with whom she was living at the time. 
They greeted her as a new medium, accepted the control as 
a genuine personality, and favoured the onset of the trance 
in every possible way. Naturally, the spirits would wax 
and grow fat under such conditions. As I have noted be- 
fore, even when Hodgson was abusing Phinuit by exposing 
his subterfuges and lies, he seems never to have questioned 
his actual existence, and so in other cases. While particular 
traits or statements may have been severely snubbed and 
pruned, there was always plenty of encouragement to de- 
velop in other directions, which were indicated at least neg- 
atively, and often positively. In the published records the 
controls are repeatedly encouraged and praised when they 

306 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

are right, are sympathetically told when they have made a 
mistake, and are aided in framing explanations of why 
they made the mistake. But I do not find any instances 
where attempts were made to see how far they could be led 
by suggestions to make up wholly incorrect accounts, as 
Dr. Hall and I led them. That is, no attempt seems to have 
been made to get any check on the control's statements, so 
as to find out how far his statements may have come from 
voluntary and involuntary suggestions from the sitter, 
and how far they must have come from his own individ- 
uality. We have already shown that the laboured attempts 
to get " evidential messages " have had practically only 
negative results. In nearly every case the message is ex- 
plicable easily as a guess or inference, or suggestion, and 
the incompleteness of the records and the impossibility of 
eliminating all opportunity of suggestion make it unjusti- 
fiable to conclude to supernormal knowledge on the part 
of the control from so few and so unimportant cases. 

But, again, much is made of the dramatic impersonation 
of friends, of the individuality and lifelikeness of the con- 
trols, etc. It is my conviction that this lifelikeness exists 
only in the minds of the sitters. It is hard for me to un- 
derstand how Hyslop, for instance, can consider the imper- 
sonation of his father dramatic and lifelike. If any of my 
deceased friends, even the most neutral and drab in char- 
acter, should come back in such a pitiful, spectral, foolish 
shape as Hyslop, Sr., I should assuredly call him the shadow 
of a shade, the ghost of a thought, the echo of an auditory 
image. In fact, the fictitious spirits that Dr. Hall and I 
created for Hodgson's benefit had more vividness and co- 
herence to them than have many of these dim visions that 
flit for an instant across the pages of the Proceedings of the 
Society for Psychical Research, then to disappear forever. 

Take the case of Hodgson for instance. Even Professor 
James, who is trying hard to believe in Hodgson, cannot 
summon any heartiness in speaking of this apparition of 

307 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

him that now sits at Mrs. Piper 's seances as Banquo 's ghost 
did at the feast. The Hodgson control has many character- 
istics of the living Hodgson, we are told, but, on the other 
hand, he does not seem to make his old friends really feel 
that he is present, except once in a while. 

The appearance of any given personality may be deter- 
mined by various factors. Frequently the sitter asks for 
some person by name. In other cases the very presence of 
the sitter indicates that communications are desired, and 
that it is " up to the control " to find the right spirit. In 
such cases he throws out numerous feelers, as he did with 
us, sometimes as many as six of these disconnected proper 
names being interjected into the sitting for us to take up 
or reject. When this is continued through three or more 
sittings it would be strange indeed if there were not some 
friend or relative associated with some name. In still other 
cases the control gradually approximates the name by a 
series of guesses, in which he is doubtless involuntarily 
aided by the sitter. In this latter case, it is easy to under- 
estimate the involuntary indications possible and the sensi- 
tiveness of the control to them. This should be more con- 
sidered. 

The various experiments in thought-transference car- 
ried on by the Society for Psychical Research itself con- 
stantly brought to light new sources of involuntary com- 
munication as well as unsuspected modes of deception, so 
that it appears pretty well made out that all of us, even in 
the normal state, are aided in reaching a conclusion or judg- 
ment not only by the perceptions which we can attend to, 
but by many unnoticed sensations, which nevertheless im- 
press us and seem to summate their activities unknown to 
our upper consciousness. One of the most suggestive exam- 
ples of this sort is seen in the notable Hans Pf erd, who was 
honestly supposed by his own master to be able to read, 
number, etc. His master exhibited this horse, and the mat- 
ter created so much interest that finally well-known psy- 

308 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

chologists, headed by Stumpf , undertook the study of him, 
under the conviction that it was all a clever trick of his 
master's to get money. They finally came to the conclusion 
that the master, who of course knew the correct answers to 
the questions asked Hans, betrayed the correct answer by 
slight, involuntary swaying movements, to which the horse 
was susceptible, and which told him when to stop his paw- 
ing or pounding. These movements were so slight that for 
a long time they were not observed by any one, and yet 
they could be perceived and reacted to by this horse. 

Now, in the case of the Piper controls, we know in the 
first place that we are dealing with an extremely suggestible 
sort of consciousness, whatever it is. Further, the normal 
Mrs. Piper has described at some length to me her great 
sensitiveness to voices, a sensitiveness so great that she bases 
her likes and dislikes to people upon their voices, and reads 
their character by their inflections and tones more than by 
any other one indication. But the voice, aided by casual 
touches now and then, is the one source of information at 
present open to the control, and with his greatly heightened 
suggestibility and the focussing of all his consciousness 
upon this one avenue, how can we question that he obtains 
from the voices of those present all the hints that he needs ? 
Even if the sitter abstains from speaking, as Hyslop did 
for two sittings, the manager must talk for the sitter, and 
we have no indication as to how far the sitter kept the 
manager ignorant of the correctness of the answers. Be- 
sides, after Hyslop began to speak himself, matters went 
much better. Not only this, but the fact that nowadays the 
medium's head is buried in the pillow, with closed eyes, 
and the fact that the control insists upon the sitter speaking 
into the right hand, which he calls his head, as well as the 
control's constant injunctions to speak slowly, and loudly, 
as if he were a little deaf, are well calculated to put the 
sitter off his guard, so that he finds himself acting as we 
do before a deaf person, conveying information to others 

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STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

present in a half whisper, or venting his feelings in ex- 
clamations, etc., which indicate to the control his state of 
mind. 

Taking into consideration all these things, therefore, it 
does not seem to me that we need to assume any super- 
normal source of knowledge for the content of the Piper 
messages, but may refer them chiefly to a heightened sug- 
gestibility to involuntary betrayals of the sitter, with a 
modicum of guessing, fishing, and inference. 

4. Much is made of the rapid transitions from one per- 
sonality to another, as if many characters were on the stage 
at once, etc. We should remember, however, that as the 
records are printed this display of various characters is 
rather misleading. In very many instances when a sup- 
posedly new character suddenly speaks, the only way of 
knowing that the character has changed is by inferring it 
from the message. The new person does not, in many cases, 
announce himself, and is only supposed to be present be- 
cause the message is nonsensical if given by the preceding 
speaker. In such a case, the sitter frequently asks, " Is 
this so and so? " and then it is easy for the control to 
fall in with the suggestion. In other cases no comment at 
all is made in the sitting, and the person writing up the 
sitting infers the new personality from the context without 
any name being given. 

But such a proceeding is not justifiable, for we have no 
evidence that, if the control were left to itself, it would 
continue in the new character. I am inclined to think that 
such lapses are often genuine lapses, i. e., the control 
really loses connections for a minute, but would never have 
thought of such a specious excuse for his inconsequential 
remarks if the sitters had not invented it for him. To put 
it more plainly, the so-called dramatic transition is a cre- 
ation of the sitters' minds just as much as the impersona- 
tions of their own friends. They have thus built up by 
degrees a very complex theory, serried ranks of spirits be- 

310 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

tween the sitter and his friend, which came into existence 
as the need arose of making the incoherences of the control 
appear reasonable. In the old days Phinuit took direct 
control and spoke to the sitter, but frequently yielded to 
friends of the sitter. But this proved rather hazardous to 
the sense of the sittings, and the tradition was developed 
that the regular control was the only one who should speak 
through the medium, spirits giving their messages to him, 
he giving them to the medium, and the medium writing or 
speaking them. Nowadays we have, closest to the sitter, 
the medium's right hand, then Rector, who is controlling 
the hand; then Hodgson, who is managing the other side; 
then the spirit friend, who speaks to Hodgson, who speaks 
to Rector, who manipulates the hand which writes. Nat- 
urally, with so many agencies, almost any mistake can be 
explained. 

But the point I wish to insist upon is that all this ex- 
planation has not been given by the control in the first 
place, but by the sitters, notably Hyslop and later Pid- 
dington. Hodgson also did his share while alive. Among 
them the various believers have framed a theory, which, 
being offered to the control, was accepted as everything is 
which is given it sympathetically. The controls themselves 
have thus been given a spiritistic education for over twenty 
years in all, so that whatever they were in the beginning, 
they are now thoroughly dyed-in-the-wool Spiritists. The 
education of the sitter by a materialising medium can be 
paralleled by the education of the control by a Spiritistic 
sitter. 

5. If the control is a secondary personality and nothing 
else, with the high suggestibility mentioned above, then we 
have a consistent explanation for the character of all its 
utterances. There is the same combination of high and ac- 
curate memory by the subconscious, with inability to carry 
on a train of thought alone for much time, that we find in 
secondary personalities. When the control is left to him- 

311 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

self the writing begins to ramble, and finally becomes more 
or less incoherent, and stops, after he has made appeals to 
the sitters to speak to him. The very life of the control 
seems to depend upon his being stimulated by questions and 
suggestions. Again we, as well as others, have said that the 
control is lying and shifty, as are secondary personalities, 
but the case would probably be better stated thus : that the 
control, like all impressionable and untrained conscious- 
nesses, tends to believe that any vivid idea is true, does not 
clearly distinguish between ideas and reality, and so confuses 
them in his assertions about them. To the control, the ficti- 
tious Borst and Bessie were really as genuine and vivid as 
any of the other trance personalities or spirits, and he was 
not lying in any true sense of the term when he related the 
spontaneous images that came up as if they were facts. He 
is also shortsighted and inconsistent, being apparently un- 
able, if left to himself, to work out a rational scheme that 
shall make his claims somewhat plausible. So, on the whole, 
my impression of the control is that, instead of showing 
supernormal knowledge and wisdom, it is simply highly 
suggestible, and reacts to suggestions in the most delicate 
way. Instead of being reasonable it is stupid and incon- 
sistent; its coherence comes from the sitter, what there is 
of it, and if left to itself it soon lapses into the incoherence 
of the idiot or animal. 

6. In this connection we should discuss briefly the medi- 
umistic diathesis, though here again my remarks must be 
taken as suggestive and not as assertive of a completed 
theory. At present they are only a working hypothesis. 
Are there any common traits in psychic mediums, that is, 
in those which manifest through some form of the trance, 
crystal gazing, or automatic writing? From what I have 
seen, it seems to me that we find in such characters a highly 
impressionable, sensitive type of mind, with a vividness of 
imagery and a tendency to feelings of premonition and 
fatality. Such characters realise more clearly than most 

312 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

of us do the many ideas that arise spontaneously, and are 
inclined to accept these ideas as omens. They are also sub- 
ject to moods, and are under the control of their impulses 
more than are other people. In these tendencies we seem to 
get the starting point for splits of personality, which may 
or may not disrupt the original self. 

Psychologically, we cannot assert that any personality 
is perfectly unified. Even the most coherent and closely 
knit mind has lapses; and in re very, moments of relaxation, 
and the moments before and after sleep, we fall into states 
of dissociation in which very vivid images may thrust them- 
selves into our minds without apparent cause. Sometimes 
these are merely phantasmagoric, without emotional feel, 
but at other times there are emotional associations, or per- 
haps the feeling of deja vu, or the sense of impending 
good or bad fortune. No careful study has as yet been 
made of the origin of these images of waking life, but we 
have some very interesting cases of the next stages in dis- 
sociation. 

Many, if not all, persons can by some practice learn 
how partly to dissociate the personality. This may be done 
in various ways. Sometimes merely lying back in a chair 
with intent to reverise, is sufficient. In other cases, the 
crystal aids in objectifying the images. In others, auto- 
matic writing is easier. Whatever the means employed, the 
result is that submerged trains of thought now come to the 
surface, trains which in our ordinary waking state we are 
unconscious of and cannot recall voluntarily. They have 
become so cut off from the emotions and aims of our upper 
mind that they have dropped out of it, but they still re- 
tain an existence in the lower region, which is both the 
lumber room and jail of the self. 

The nature of these subconscious ideas and their influ- 
ence upon the waking self is at present one of the most 
disputed and uncertain points in psychology. We have all 
shades of opinion, from those psychologists and biologists 
23 313 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

who maintain that here is nothing but neural action with- 
out consciousness, to those Psychical Researchers like Myers, 
who are convinced that the subconscious is the germinating 
place of all man's highest faculties, or like James, who be- 
lieve that it is our avenue of communication with God. In 
the middle ground between these extremes we find various 
physicians and psychologists who do not classify the sub- 
conscious mind as either higher or lower than the conscious 
self, but rather view the whole mind as a working unity, 
of which what we call the conscious mind is only the pres- 
ent functioning centre, the tool or working material with 
which we carry out our purposes. Out of the countless im- 
pressions and combinations of them to which the nervous 
system reacts, and which leave memory traces upon nervous 
centres and the mind, only a few come into awareness, and 
of these few many are rejected at once as inappropriate or 
undesirable. 

The undesirable ones are, from the mind's standpoint, 
those which break up its habits and tendencies, destroy its 
purposes, etc., or, from another standpoint, they are shocks 
given either to the nervous system or the mind. The mind 
tends naturally to eject such stimuli as soon and as com- 
pletely as possible, but in many cases they are too strong 
to be thus ejected, and must either be harmonised, that is, 
associated with the previous ideas, or else the self tends to 
split either consciously or unconsciously. In such cases the 
way in which the self reacts seems to depend very largely 
upon the number of constellations, the width of the per- 
son's horizon, and his mental breadth, as well as upon the 
close knitting together of each constellation. The person 
whose interests are few, and much more the person whose 
interests are both narrow and intense, is perhaps most sub- 
ject to this sort of disturbance. If the self is widely or- 
ganised but plastic, the shocking ideas are gradually as- 
similated, modifying the old somewhat and themselves 
being modified in accordance with the person's needs and 

314 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

his ability and opportunity of verifying or disproving the 
new ideas. 

If the self is less well balanced, the person goes through 
a very painful and agonising, but largely conscious, period 
of doubt and adjustment, in which he alternates from one 
standpoint to another, being in fact a mild case of alter- 
nating personalities, with little or no amnesia, but with 
the stress or emphasis very different in the two moods. By 
degrees these alternating selves or moods are harmonised, 
though it may sometimes take months or years, and the 
person becomes whole once more. 

But if the person is still less well organised, or if the 
shock is great enough, the new idea may be unendurable to 
the personality, may seem so inimical to it that it must be 
rejected regardless of whether it is true or not, in order to 
save the personality. In such cases the person emerges 
from the shock with forgetfulness of it. To his waking 
mind it is as if the event had never been. But later on 
nervous symptoms may appear. The person may become 
subject to convulsive attacks, or to broken sleep and terri- 
fying dreams, or may break down nervously without any 
apparent cause. It is supposed that in such cases the shock- 
ing idea was abruptly dissociated from the conscious self, 
but it had sufficient vitality to persist and associate with 
itself other ideas which had not been woven into the normal 
consciousness, or were not in use by it, and also to form 
associations with some motor centres, so that through them 
it found means of expression. Not only this, but, if the 
shock was great enough, instead of persisting for a time 
and gradually dying out, as is probably usually the case, it 
may continue to grow, forming more and more associa- 
tions, and making inroads upon the normal self, depriving 
it by degrees of its own associations, until the secondary 
self may at length be the larger and the primary self be 
only a shrunken remnant. 

Secondary personalities, therefore, present all grada- 

315 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

tions from the moods of the normal self down, and their 
intelligence is different from the normal as they become 
more integrated, since they are created from the material 
left over from or unused by the normal self. Just in pro- 
portion as psychiatrists are able to study such cases in de- 
tail, they find that the memories, associations, emotions, etc., 
manifested by the secondary personality are traceable to 
events in the person 's life which either seemed unimportant 
to the primary personality, or else were so inimical to it 
that it forced them out of its presence forthwith. 

In cases where there has been no shock, and where the 
person voluntarily practises attaining abstraction, as in 
crystal gazing or automatic writing, either unimportant or 
long-past experiences are the ones most likely to emerge. 
Miss Goodrich-Freer, for instance, in many cases traced her 
crystal visions back to unattended-to sensations, and Mrs. 
Verrall notes that her automatic hand wrote accounts of 
things read twenty-odd years before, while quite neglecting 
the acquisitions of recent years. This is just what we 
should expect if a state of dissociation is really attained. 
But these very characteristics make the task of tracing the 
origin of such ideas difficult, so that while the presumption 
is that all the content of crystals or automatic writing is 
so derived, we can only demonstrate it in some exceptional 
cases, where the person either runs across objective evi- 
dence, or can be subjected to some psycho-analytic method 
or hypnoidisation in order to bring up the submerged 
events. 

How, then, are we to summarise the case of Mrs. Piper ? 
In her case we have, in the first place, the impressionable, 
impulsive diathesis, with tendencies to premonition, etc., 
which seems to favour the development of secondary per- 
sonalities. We have also various nervous shocks, which 
would serve as occasions for the split, and in addition we 
have a systematic encouragement of such splitting, and as 
complete a severance of the secondary self from the pri- 

316 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

mary as possible, both on the part of Mrs. Piper and the 
sitters. This latter factor probably explains why the sec- 
ondary self has not enlarged and encroached npon the field 
of the primary self as time has advanced. The fact that 
the entrance to the transition stage from each self to the 
other is voluntary is paralleled in other cases of secondary 
personality, like Miss Beauchamp's. 

Furthermore, the characteristics of the control are much 
like those of other secondary selves, so that it would seem 
as if we could make out a complete parallelism between 
Mrs. Piper and other cases of secondary personality, the 
variations from other cases being no greater than those 
arising from individual idiosyncrasies. 

At this point, however, the Psychical Researcher once 
more appears to assure us that we have not touched the 
real problem at all when we have proved that Mrs. Piper 
has a secondary personality. Let us grant, they say, that 
that is true. When she enters the trance a secondary per- 
sonality appears. Even if this is so, they assure us, it only 
proves that it is easier for spirits to communicate through 
secondary than through primary personalities. The real 
question is simply this : Is there anything given in the mes- . 
sages which could not possibly have come from the mind 
of the medium, whether in its primary or secondary state, 
or the mind of the sitter? 

To this question our conclusion is that there is nothing 
not so derived. There is no real evidence of supernormal 
knowledge. Let us briefly recapitulate the lengthy dem- 
onstration already given of this point in our discussion of 
sources of error and of test messages. 

We have noted that many of the early sittings are im- 
perfectly recorded, and that such records as there are were 
in part made after the sitting and not at the time, thus 
allowing for the illusions of memory so well demonstrated 
by Davey. This is especially true of the Pelham series, 
considered one of the most important, and of the first Eng- 

317 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

lish series. In the Hyslop series, where a great effort was 
made to take down every word spoken, and not to touch 
the medium, the number of so-called test messages is much 
less than in the imperfectly recorded earlier series, and the 
messages are easily explicable as inferences or guesses. This 
is, of course, totally different from Hyslop 's own opinion, 
but even Psychical Researchers differ greatly from Hyslop 
as to the value of his sittings. Further, no precautions 
were taken as to suggestions from the inflections of Hodg- 
son's and Hyslop 's voices. In the Newbold series, important 
both from its length and the alleged translation of Greek, 
Newbold himself notes the incompleteness of the record. 
In the latest published series, to prove the identity of 
Hodgson, the Researchers do not claim satisfactory results, 
and cite no test messages. In the cross-correspondence 
tests we have shown that Mrs. and Miss Verrall, the two 
mediums with whom most of Mrs. Piper's correspondences 
were obtained, were having sittings with her during the 
time of the tests, and that there were no correspondences 
before the sittings. In the unpublished series 1 in my pos- 
session, in which the translation of Latin is the chief thing, 
the processes of guessing and inference are exactly similar 
to those in the Newbold series. And in Dr. Hall's series 
my inferences as to the sources of knowledge of the control 
were positively shown by our carefully arranged sets of 
suggestions to which the control reacted so quickly. 

I should add to the usual guessing, inference, etc., of 
the control another factor which may explain some of the 
incoherences and the lucky hits. We have said that in the 
mediumistic diathesis spontaneous images, vivid and dis- 
tinct, are very marked, and that in the case of the young 
medium studied by us this was very interestingly shown 
in the trance. May this not also be the case with the Piper 
control? Ideas arise in his mind quite disconnected from 

1 Now published in Proceedings, vol. xxiv. 
318 



THEORY OF THE PIPER CASE 

the subject of conversation, and arrest his attention. He 
records them, and if the sitter can supply a setting for 
them the control has made a hit; if not, he has introduced 
confusion. Bat the control does not know their origin any 
more than the sitter does, and can only say, " It came to 
me." If, however, we could only subject Mrs. Piper to 
psycho-analysis or to hypnoidisation, is it not probable that 
we could find the origin of these cryptic sayings somewhere 
in her own life? 

When we consider that out of the vast mass of pub- 
lished records only approximately 110 messages at all con- 
form to the idea of ' ' test messages, ' ' and that, as we have 
shown in detail already, nearly all of these can be reason- 
ably explained as the result of suggestions, lucky guesses, 
or inferences, we cannot feel that in their twenty-three years 
of work the controls have shown any great amount of 
perspicacity. When we add to this that in the cross-cor- 
respondence tests with Mrs. Piper the Researchers them- 
selves claim but 23 out of over 100 as correct, and 
that we have explained most of those 23 as the result 
of a common milieu, or of suggestion, we cannot consider 
the argument for supernormal knowledge much strength- 
ened. Nor can the fact that during all these years the 
controls have given eorrectly the names of various sitters 
and their deceased friends, with facts about their family 
life, be cited as real evidence, for we have noted repeatedly 
that the records are too incomplete for us to judge such 
cases either for or against. 

It is easy for us to understand that such things may be 
very convincing to the sitter, especially to the sitter who 
has recently lost a beloved one, and for all that may not 
have one particle of scientific value. The alleged entrance 
of any departed friend is well calculated to upset one's 
calm judgment if one really believes in a personal immor- 
tality, especially if the death is recent, and when added to 
this the record of the sitting is imperfect, the general public 

319 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

should not be called upon to give credence to the claims 
of the controls. 

I maintain, therefore, that even the " test messages " 
and the cross-correspondence tests of the Piper case, far 
from making out a prima facie case for some supernormal 
knowledge on the part of the controls, are emphatically 
against any such claims, and that the remainder of the 
content of the sittings is so imperfectly recorded that the 
Researchers have no right to present such sittings as of 
any serious value. To sum the whole situation up in a 
word, the entire content of the Piper messages can be re- 
ferred (1) to the ordinary laws of the mind as seen in ap- 
perception, inference, etc.; (2) to a greatly heightened 
suggestibility; (3) to a modicum necessarily unexplained 
because of imperfect records. 



CHAPTER XX 

TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA: SPONTANEOUS 
AND EXPERIMENTAL THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE 

We cannot leave the subject of spirit communication 
without at least a brief discussion of the phenomena sub- 
sumed under the names of telepathy and thought-transfer- 
ence, because spirit communication assumes that the dis- 
carnate spirit can somehow affect either the mind of the me- 
dium or of the sitter without using ordinary sensory means. 
Furthermore, many of the Psychical Researchers who are 
not yet willing to grant spirit communication do believe 
in telepathy, and the popular accounts in papers and mag- 
azines have given a greatly exaggerated notion to the pub- 
lic of the amount and value of the proof. 

First of all, let it be said that, as denned again and 
again by the Psychical Researchers, " Telepathy is a name, 
not a theory ; it implies nothing as to the mode of thought- 
transference, other than that it may occur without use of 
the ordinary sensory channels." But this implies a very 
large theory, viz., that there can be communications from 
person to person without use of any part of the body. 

However, under this name are grouped all such things 
as crystal gazing, veridical dreams, death warnings, pre- 
monitions that come true, automatic writing, and even 
spirit communication itself by some. 

To discuss all these fully would be the task of a book 
instead of a chapter. Here I will merely define the terms 
in the most cursory fashion, and cite the most notable con- 
tributions to the subject, with a discussion of the kind of 
evidence which is acceptable to the Psychical Researchers. 

321 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

Thought-transference is a term used synonymously with 
telepathy, and under these two fall all the other classes 
referred to. In crystal gazing the experimenter looks into 
a glass ball, or a glass of water or of ink, and watches the 
pictures which may appear there. In some instances he 
finds that they represent events that either have hap- 
pened, are happening, or later happen in the life of him- 
self or of some friend or acquaintance. In automatic 
writing the person holds a pencil or employs the plan- 
chette, and similarly writes things which he has no 
knowledge that he knew. The veridical dream is one 
that is found to be true. The death warning or premoni- 
tion occurs within twelve hours of the death of the person 
concerned. 

It is scarcely necessary to say that in all these cases 
most of the crystal visions, automatic messages, dreams, 
premonitions, etc., have no discoverable meaning or are 
easily explained by reference to the experimenter's own 
knowledge and life. The whole question of how to inter- 
pret the few that do seem to be true, and that cannot be 
traced back to any known psychical laws, becomes a ques- 
tion of how often we should expect to find such coinci- 
dences with facts, if only chance and the ordinary laws of 
the human mind were at work. What chance is there, for 
instance, of my happening to dream about a friend at the 
time he is dying? What chance is there that — as just 
occurred to me — my thought of a friend, whom I had not 
seen for several weeks, will be followed by her calling me 
up over the telephone within half an hour? Here we get 
into the Calculus of Probabilities. For the present, how- 
ever, let us leave this complex problem and consider the 
chief experiments carried on within the Society along these 
lines. 

One of the first things to which the Society directed 
itself was the study of experimental thought-transference, 
that is, the transference of thoughts under certain definite 

322 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

conditions which could be reproduced by any one, and 
which made it impossible for the senses to come into play. 
The earliest accounts of such experiments were published 
by Messrs. Gurney, Podmore, and Myers in Phantasms of 
the Living, with very many other data on all sorts of 
telepathy. The chief series of experiments described here 
are the following: 

M. Richet tried to transfer to others the names of French 
authors, taken at random from a dictionary known to the 
collaborators. His experiments involved five persons be- 
sides himself, one of them a medium. The medium and two 
others sat at a table, with their hands on it. The table was 
connected with a battery so that every time it tilted a bell 
rang. Behind the sitters and behind a large screen was 
an alphabet, in front of which sat a fourth person moving 
a pencil steadily over the alphabet from beginning to end. 
Beside him sat a fifth, who was to write down the letter 
over which the pencil stood when the bell rang. Richet 
stood somewhere in the room thinking of the name he had 
chosen. The supposition is that the sitters cannot know 
what letter the pencil is over at any time nor what letters 
are desired, and so, if the letters which they tilt out corre- 
spond to those in the name Richet is thinking of, there 
must have been a double telepathy, first from his mind to 
theirs, impressing on them the desired letters, and, secondly, 
from the tracer's mind to theirs, impressing on them when 
his pencil is over a certain letter. 

Richet assumes that, since there are twenty-four letters 
in the French alphabet, there is one chance out of twenty- 
four that if chance alone works, a tilted-out letter will 
correspond to one in his mind. But he gets eight times as 
many successes, on this assumption, as would be expected. 
He concludes, therefore, that the experiments strongly 
favour the assumption of telepathy, and says at the end, 
" One hesitates to launch oneself on the conceptions 
which these experiments open up ; but the only alternative 

323 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

would be to question the facts from an evidential point 
of view." 

One does indeed hesitate, and therefore one questions 
the evidence. Let us assume — what we might fairly ques- 
tion perhaps — that the five collaborators all worked in good 
faith. The entire set of experiments is still vitiated by cer- 
tain erroneous assumptions. First of all, if Richet stood 
where he saw the movement of the pencil over the alpha- 
bet, it is altogether probable that he gave involuntary in- 
dications when a desired letter was near, and that the tracer 
felt and responded to them more or less subconsciously, as 
did also the sitters. As far as can be judged from the ac- 
count, such possibilities were not excluded. But even if 
they were excluded, if the sitters, especially the medium, 
had any idea of the rate at which the pencil was moving — 
and probably there were rehearsals before the real experi- 
ment began — they would get a rhythm which would give 
them a general feeling of the whereabouts of the pencil at 
any given time, and then the letter-habit would influence 
the results. That is, sitters and tracer all knew that names 
of French authors were to be selected; knowing this, the 
tracer will tend to loiter over vowels and consonants most 
frequently used, and the sitters will tend to tilt the table 
at the times when they feel, from the involuntary indica- 
tions of Richet and their sense of the rhythm of the pen- 
cil's movement, that a desired letter is near. When we 
note that out of the six unequivocal successes three were 
with E, two with H, and one with C, all of which are 
common letters, such an assumption is strengthened, and 
this is still more the case when we add that in seven- 
teen other cases the letter tilted out came just before 
or after the one desired; that is, the sitters had the 
rhythm of the pencil movement approximately but not 
exactly. 

Experiments in transferring numbers and diagrams 
were expected to be especially valuable because the effects 

324 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

of chance working alone could be readily calculated, and 
some of these are given in Phantasms of the Living. 

First, there are two sets of experiments performed by 
Herr Dessoir in the reproduction of diagrams, the number 
of experiments being nineteen in one case and five in the 
other. In the first series Herr Dessoir was the percipient, 
the drawing was usually done outside of the room, and he 
had his eyes bandaged and ears stuffed. He held the agent 's 
hands on his, " quite motionless, ' ' until an image clearly 
presented itself, and when the drawing was put out of sight 
he took off the bandage and drew. In various cases there 
is a general resemblance between the original and his draw- 
ing, but perhaps not enough so that the diagram habit 
would not account for them all. 

In the second series Herr Dessoir made the drawings in 
the same room with the percipient, so that the effects of 
hyperesthesia are not excluded nor those of the diagram 
habit, and the series — five — is far too short to be of any 
value whatever. 

The Misses Wingfield made a series of 400 trials in re- 
production of numbers, using numbers between 10 and 
99. These were written on pieces of paper, mixed in a 
bowl, and drawn at hazard, the agent then fixing her mind 
on the one drawn, while sitting about six feet behind the 
percipient. The percipient does not seem to have been 
blindfolded nor to have had her ears stopped. In the 400 
trials, there were 27 completely right guesses; 21 with the 
right digits, but reversed; and 162 in which one digit was 
correctly given and in its right place. Chance alone would 
have given but 4 complete successes. The authors say, ' ' The 
odds (against chance alone being operative here) are nearly 
two hundred thousand million trillions of trillions to one. 
It would be a very inadequate statement of the case to say 
that if the waking hours of the whole population of the 
world were for the future continuously devoted to mak- 
ing similar trials, life on this planet would come to an end 

325 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

without such an amount of success or anything like it 
having been accidentally achieved." ! ! 

We, too, agree that the success is not due to chance, but 
question whether it is telepathic, since hyperesthesia was 
not excluded. 

Liebault reports some experiments by Liegeois upon a 
hypnotised girl of twenty years. But as the drawing was 
done in the same room with the subject, hyperesthesia of 
sound is not excluded, even if we admit that sight was. 
So also various experiments reported by Ochorowicz are not 
described in sufficient detail for us to judge whether the 
conditions were such as to exclude all sorts of suggestions 
and hyperesthesia. 

Scattered through the Proceedings of the Society are 
also detailed reports of many such experiments, which have 
been finally summarised by Mr. Thomas * and criticised. 
He states that since the Sidgwick experiments in 1889 and 
1890 (which are now discredited because fraud was found in 
some cases, and in others unsuspected sources of error), no 
long series has been published, and that in view of the 
knowledge of the possibilities of error gained since those 
early experiments, the failure to get new evidence under 
the more rigid conditions now demanded must throw some 
doubts on the early results. On the other hand, he does 
not think there is any a priori impossibility in telepathy, 
but that it is capable of being scientifically investigated, 
although physiologists and physicists are no better fitted 
for this work than any one else. 

The possible sources of error in such experiments — 
assuming the good faith of the experimenter or agent and 
the percipient or subject — are of two chief kinds. First, 
there is the possibility of hyperesthesia. That is, the per- 
cipient may be a person who is unusually sensitive to all 

iN. W. Thomas, "Thought Transference," De La More Press, 
1905, 210 pp. 

326 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

sorts of impressions, and who can therefore get indications 
from movements, reflections, sounds, tensions of the body, 
etc., which the agent cannot perceive and does not know he 
is giving. The receiving and interpreting of these subcon- 
scious and involuntary indications may be entirely sub- 
conscious on the part of the percipient also, so that she may 
say honestly that she does not know why she had the idea, 
and yet may have got it from the agent himself. This 
source of error has been shown to be present in very many 
cases, and so no experiment is valid where the percipient 
and agent are within sight or hearing of each other. 

The second source of error lies in the similarity of 
thought between different persons. When the early experi- 
ments on thought-transference were published sceptics 
were forced to find an explanation, and began to study the 
common associations in our minds. They found that all 
minds have certain common tendencies, so that, e. g., in the 
numbers from one to ten certain ones like three and seven 
will appear more often in our mind than others; certain 
letters of the alphabet and certain diagrams, in the same 
way, turn up more often in our minds than others. Now 
it is evident that in the early experiments, before these 
habits were known, when the agent chose some diagram or 
number that happened to come into his mind, the chances 
were in favour of his choosing the most common one and 
of the percipient's thinking of the most common one, too. 
That is, the number, letter, or diagram habit could have 
free play and vitiated the results. This source of error 
can be easily removed if the diagrams, words, letters, etc., 
to be used are thrown into a box and picked out by lot. 

The sources of error due to fraud Thomas believes are 
well enough known to be guarded against, but it seems to 
me doubtful whether the Psychical Researchers, or perhaps 
one might even say psychological experimenters of all sorts, 
have any conception of the mass of feelings focussing about 
the sense of self that modify the reactions of any subject 

327 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

who is serving in a psychological experiment. Some Ger- 
man psychologists have noted briefly that in working with 
children we must always be on our guard in interpreting 
results because they are so likely to give the answers which 
they think are wanted, or which they think proper, etc., 
while critics of the questionnaire method have raised sim- 
ilar objections to the answers given under its conditions. 
But one might go further than this. One might question 
whether any subject who is conscious that his mental 
processes are undergoing scrutiny will not thereby be made 
self-conscious, keenly sensitive as to whether his reactions 
are such as the experimenter desires or thinks normal, and 
inclined to modify his reactions in the directions which he 
believes desirable. This usually goes on in the outskirts of 
consciousness, perhaps in the subconscious mind itself, but 
it must modify the results of all experiments where the ex- 
perimenter has a definite theory or opinion, because when 
he has one he cannot help betraying it at times. This source 
of error, of course, shades over into conscious fraud on 
one side and into hyperesthesias and subconscious processes 
on the other. It could, in experiments on thought-transfer- 
ence, probably be entirely guarded against if agent and 
percipient did not know each other's opinions and did not 
see each other at all during the time when the series of 
experiments was being tried. 

Thomas next criticises in detail the various experiments. 
Richet's experiments in clairvoyance between 1887 and 
1888 do not exclude the possibility of hyperesthesia, and 
are all too short to be conclusive. His experiments with 
cards, out of 20,580 trials, contain seven per cent more suc- 
cesses than chance alone would explain, a favourable per- 
centage so small that one wonders whether it would not 
vanish if the series were continued. Mrs. Verrall's experi- 
ments {Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 
vol. vii, p. 174) and Guthrie's do not exclude hyperaesthesia, 
and Guthrie does not describe his conditions with sufficient 

328 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

detail. Thomas is inclined to think that the Newnham case 
(Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. iii, 
p. 6) is a genuine one, and that the Sidgwick experiments 
from 1889 to 1892 may have had genuine examples of telep- 
athy in some instances, as well as the many other experi- 
ments carried on at that time, in which the percentage of 
successes was considerably above what chance alone would 
give. Nevertheless, he admits that the fact that the per- 
centages have steadily lessened with more rigid conditions 
must make us fear that there was some serious source of 
error in all these. 

The various experiments on telepathy at distances vary- 
ing from thirty or forty feet to miles are discussed in some 
detail, but usually their conditions are not exactly described, 
and in any case they are far too few in number to prove 
anything. Here fall Janet's experiments with Leonie B., 
Ermacora's, Van Eeden's, etc. 

Thomas then describes a long series of his own, but curi- 
ously enough, although he warns us so carefully against 
hyperesthesia, he was only seven feet distant from his sub- 
ject, and so did not exclude sounds from breathing, in- 
voluntary movements, etc., although he seems to have taken 
great pains to exclude sight. He says that his results are 
inconclusive, but believes they tend slightly to favour 
telepathy. 

He gives as his final conviction that much more sys- 
tematic effort will be necessary before we can assume that 
telepathy is proven by experiments. Spontaneous cases and 
crystal gazing add something to the evidence, but still do 
not prove the case. It is quite indefensible to assume, as 
is constantly done, that telepathy is a proven fact, and 
can be assumed as a cause of almost any inexplicable phe- 
nomenon such as spirit communication or coincidences in 
thought. 

In his recent book, " Naturalisation of the Supernat- 
ural," Mr. Podmore also sums up the work done since the 
24 329 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

establishment of the Society for Psychical Research, and 
gives somewhat new standards as well as new cases. 

In this work he summarises the experiments on thought- 
transference performed by the Sidgwicks and Miss John- 
son, with Mr. Smith as operator and two young men as 
percipients. Recognising that the success obtained under 
these conditions might be due to some unrecognised form 
of unconscious communication or suggestion, the experi- 
ments were continued the next year with the same operator, 
but a different percipient, and in these two series, in one 
case the two were in the same room, while in the other a 
curtain was put between them or they were in separate 
rooms. When nothing intervened, out of 126 trials there 
were 26 complete successes — the transference being of num- 
bers from 10 to 90. When in separate rooms, out of 148 
trials 20 were complete successes, and in 71 further trials 
7 were complete successes, while in 31 others there were 
none. In all, there were 252 trials with the two separated 
by a partition, with 27 complete successes. 

The slight difference in distance, but with sight cut off 
and probably sound also, reduced the percentage of suc- 
cesses very materially, although it is still far larger than 
chance would explain. Podmore is inclined to accept Mrs. 
Sidgwick's suggestion that the difference is probably due 
to the fact that when the percipient and agent were alone 
they did not expect much success, and also found the ex- 
periments far more monotonous and difficult. Nearly 400 
other experiments were made with the same percipient, 
with the agent separated by two closed doors and a passage, 
and practically no success was obtained. Is there any 
reason to suppose that, without actual distance being in- 
creased, but with still further precautions to make sounds 
impossible, and to eliminate the effects of the number habit, 
the number of successes would not be still further di- 
minished ¥ 

As against Thomas, only the year before his book ap- 

330 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

peared, E. T. Bennett, Assistant Secretary of the Society 
for Psychical Research from 1882 to 1904, summed up the 
experiments on thought-transference thus : 40 different in- 
vestigators have made over 12,000 experiments, with 600 
drawings, and in Phantasms of the Living 700 more cases 
are examined and found to afford evidence of thought- 
transference, and he concludes : ' ' This disposes of any alle- 
gations that attempts have been made to raise a structure 
on insufficient foundations," and also, it seems to me, his 
remark illustrates the inveterate tendency of the Psychical 
Researchers to prefer quantity to quality, and the funda- 
mental difference in that respect between them and sci- 
entists. No matter how many fagots are bound together 
the bundle will never be strong if each individual fagot 
is broken in several places. 

Of course these experiments could not escape criticism, 
and are discussed in the National Review for January, 
1887, by Ada Heather Bigg and Marian La Hatchard, in 
an article entitled " Some Miscalled Cases of Thought- 
Transference." They take the position that in their ex- 
periments Barrett, Gurney, and Myers probably did not 
exhaust the other alternatives to thought-transference, and 
at least that this ought not to be assumed until many more 
experiments have been tried. They believe that similar 
habits, education, etc., tend to cause similar brain func- 
tioning, and the wonder is not that we get apparent cases 
of telepathy now and then, but that we do not get more. 
Lewes gives as an instance, that once he and a friend were 
out walking, and hearing the sound of hoofs he remarked 
that he thought the riders were two women and a man. 
His friend said that he had just thought the same thing, 
and the riders really were as supposed. The explanation is 
that as women canter and men trot, the sounds registered 
themselves on their brains and the ideas appeared seem- 
ingly as telepathy. The number habit is also referred to 
by them as another factor in the experiments against telep- 

331 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

athy. Subtle suggestions also act, as, for instance, if a per- 
son is told to choose a number containing three digits, three 
will occur more than twice as often as if chance alone de- 
cided it. In choosing letters there are three tendencies es- 
pecially : (1) To choose a, b, and c; (2) to choose one's Own 
initials; (3) to choose z. 

In the experiments already described the time element 
did not enter to invalidate the conclusions, since the coin- 
cidences were noted when the experiments were made. 
But in practically all the rest of the evidence one of the 
most important problems, if not the most important, is the 
question of the reliability of memory. 

To-day we are in a position to make certain definite 
statements with regard to memory. First of all, to press 
the matter home to the Psychical Researchers themselves, 
let us quote the experiments of Davey, a member of their 
own Society in its early days. (Proceedings of the Society 
for Psychical Research, vol. iv, 1885-86, pp. 381-495 and 
index.) 

Mr. Davey wished to ascertain how much chance there 
was of a sitter being deceived as to the series of events in 
a seance or sleight-of-hand performance. He himself was 
a good conjurer, and he began to give sittings to friends, 
especially members of the Society for Psychical Research, 
Hodgson among them. He asked these friends to write 
out an account of the seance immediately after it was 
over, as fully as possible. He wanted them to tell just 
what was done and said. He himself wrote out what 
was actually done and said, and he compared the two 
accounts. 

The result is the most interesting chapter on the psy- 
chology of deception that has yet been written. Davey 
found that the sitter was in most cases unable to give any 
explanation at all of how the tricks were done, and when 
he did have theories they were wide of the mark, unless he 
had had some training in practical conjuring. He was 

332 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

misled in various ways, the errors falling into four prin- 
cipal classes: 

1. The sitter interpolated as facts what did not occur 
but what the medium made him believe occurred, e. g., the 
medium gives him a slate and tells him to examine it care- 
fully, giving considerable patter about the importance of 
close examination, but at the same time drawing back the 
slate and looking it over himself, thus showing the sitter 
but one side, and not even that close at hand. The sitter 
then writes that he examined the slate carefully. Or again, 
perhaps eight rings are to be used, and the sitter testifies, 
as a well-known professor did, that he examined all eight, 
whereas in reality he only touched two. Or again, the 
medium brings forward a pile of " eight " slates, which 
really contains nine, but the sitter accepts the eight, and so 
reports it. Or, as in a case Hodgson reports, of an Indian 
juggler's trick, when an army officer was the subject. The 
officer reported that he put his coin on the ground, whereas 
Hodgson, who knew the trick and was watching, saw the 
juggler take it unobtrusively from the officer's hand, just 
as he was about to lay it on the ground. The trick could 
not have been done if the juggler had not had this oppor- 
tunity for substitution. 

2. This first error is closely connected with the second. 
The sitter often confuses like ideas, saying he washed the 
slate thoroughly when he only did it superficially, that he 
tied up the medium securely when he followed the medi- 
um's directions, that he searched the medium thoroughly 
when he was confused into thinking that he did by the 
medium's manner, air, etc. 

3. The order of events is changed. The sitter believes, 
for instance, that the medium never touched the slate after 
he himself washed it, whereas the medium did. He may 
declare that the medium never left the room after the ques- 
tion had been written on the paper, whereas the medium 
may have gone to answer a ring at the door. 

333 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

4. He omits numerous details which seem to him unim- 
portant, but which give the medium the opportunity to 
perform the trick; e. g., the medium may turn aside, os- 
tensibly to blow his nose, and at that instant may open 
and read the slip of paper in his hand. The sitter politely 
ignores the act, and forgets about it immediately afterward. 

To state it in another way, what we call our memory 
is practically never a perfectly objective account of objec- 
tive events in their order. " My memory " of an event is 
a mass of images of what I saw, heard, etc., indistinguish- 
ably mingled with my feelings about them, my interpreta- 
tions of what they meant, etc. This has been well shown 
within the last few years by the detailed experiments which 
have been made in Germany by Wilhelm Stern and his 
followers on the reliability of testimony in legal matters. 
These men have carried on many experiments both with 
adults and with children, in some instances the subjects 
being asked to write out a complete account of some room ; 
in others, an account of some incidental occurrence to which 
their attention was not directed at the time it was happen- 
ing; in others, the account of some event which they be- 
lieved they would be called upon to testify about in court. 
In the first two classes of cases all the errors noted by 
Davey were found, that is, events were inserted which did 
not belong there, or were modified, or the order of events 
was altered, and in all three classes of experiments there 
were very many gaps. (In all these experiments the ac- 
counts were written either within a week or immediately 
after the event.) Furthermore, the extremely interesting 
discovery was made that when the subjects were questioned 
about the event and the answers written down, the number 
of mistakes was from two to three times as numerous even 
if the questions were neutral in form, and still more so if 
they were suggestive. It goes without saying that where 
the subject himself has a strong inclination for or against 
a certain interpretation of the event, the memory of the 

334 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

event will be strongly coloured by the prejudice. These 
gaps are found in every one's memory, and the insertions, 
transpositions, and misinterpretations occur in from fifteen 
to twenty-five per cent of all cases studied, the numbers 
varying according to the subject and the class of material 
under investigation ; but no one can say a priori what classes 
of errors a given subject will commit. 

It was also found the mistakes were just as definite in 
the subject's mind as the correct images, and that he would 
answer questions about these mistaken ideas with much de- 
tail, especially if the questions were suggestive. 

And, finally, the memory of one part of a testimony may 
be correct, and the rest incorrect, and it is entirely impos- 
sible to reason out which parts are likely to be true and 
which not. 

If we admit the validity of these studies — and one can 
scarcely question it after reading the experiments — the claim 
of the Psychical Researchers that they have been accumu- 
lating ' ' scientific ' ' evidence becomes an absurdity. In the 
first place, in no single recorded instance has any study 
been made of the memory type of any of these persons who 
have had veridical dreams, death warnings, telepathic mes- 
sages, etc. It is probable that these subjects if examined 
would show some of the less common tendencies to error, 
and it is certain that they would have large gaps in any 
memory test to which they should be subjected, even if 
they had the chance to write out their account within an 
hour after the event. It is certain from the accounts given 
by the subjects that many of them believe in telepathy, etc., 
and therefore have a prejudice in favour of interpreting 
events conformably to their belief, which must warp their 
memory in that direction. It is probable from other ac- 
counts that some of them are suggestible, so that subsequent 
events and the questions of the one who is collecting the 
facts for the Society would warp their memory. We have 
no records of the interviews between the subjects and the 

335 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

collectors, and so are entirely ignorant how far the col- 
lector 's zeal may have influenced his questions and the sub- 
ject 's answers. 

But most invalidating of all is the lapse of time that has 
occurred in most cases between the event and the writing 
of it down. Even in Mr. Podmore's more recent book, 
' ' Naturalisation of the Supernatural, ' ' he accepts all cases 
written out within ten years of the occurrence of the event, 
and in the earlier collections accounts written even forty or 
fifty years after the event are accepted. Surely in the light 
of the above studies of memory it is the funniest sort of 
farce to maintain that memories going back ten years, un- 
supported by a shred of written contemporary evidence, 
can be considered proof of telepathy, especially since in 
most cases only one or two persons remember anything 
about the warning or death apparition, and so we lose the 
strong advantage gained from converging testimonies. 
Strictly speaking, no such memories can have any value 
unless written out within at least a week after the pre- 
monition, before the subject knows of the coincidence with 
fact, and before she has talked it over with others and so 
has been influenced by their encouragement, doubt, or 
questions. 

But if we apply this time limit to the cases of telepathy 
of all sorts which the Researchers themselves have accepted 
(appearing in the Census of Hallucinations, Phantasms of 
the Living, Proceedings of the Society, and Podmore's 
two books, " Studies in Psychical Research " and " Natu- 
ralisation of the Supernatural "), we find in all but 34 
cases in which the supposed message corresponded to a 
fact. 1 

i Cases have not been cited from the Journal of the Society for 
Psychical Research, because (1) it expressly states that its contents 
are not for general publication, and (2) because the cases which 
prove valid after more thorough investigation are printed usually 
in the Proceedings. 

336 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

These cases are as follows : 

1. The Committee on Hallucinations (Proceedings of 
the Society for Psychical Research, vol. x) reports an ex- 
perience of Miss Maughan with a friend, Miss Gatty. Miss 
Gatty woke up one morning about four to see Miss 
Maughan standing in front of her in so unbalanced a po- 
sition that she at once jumped out of bed to save her from 
falling. As she touched the apparition it vanished. The 
next day she wrote Miss Maughan a letter about it, and 
found that Miss Maughan had been lying awake at that 
time thinking intently of her. 

2. In Phantasms of the Living (vol. i, p. 89 et seq.) we 
have various cases given. Miss Hervey saw a vision of a 
cousin going up the stairs and made a note of it in her 
diary, which Mr. Podmore saw. About thirty hours later 
the cousin died. 

3. Miss Caldecott saw a faint glow of light in a corner, 
which became a friend then in Scotland, holding out her 
hands in appeal. The next day she wrote to this friend, 
and soon received an answer saying that at just that time 
she had been longing to see her. 

4. Rev. John Drake one morning went to a friend and 
told him his daughter had arrived safely in port, for he 
had seen it in a vision. The friend was incredulous, be- 
cause it was two weeks before the boat was due, but made 
a note of it in his memorandum book, and later found 
that the boat really had come in on that date. 

5. A Mr. Carslake one day believed that he saw his 
Uncle John cross the road in front of him and turn into 
a lane. He at once made a memorandum of it, querying 
whether it did not indicate the uncle's death, as he had 
long been ill, and later he found that the death had oc- 
curred about this time. 

When Mr. Gurney obtained this story it was sixty -nine 
years old, and the original memorandum had been lost, but 
what was believed to be an exact copy of it was in existence. 

337 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

But the case is explained by the fact that the nephew had 
been expecting the death. 

6. Mrs. Barber went shopping, and at dinner thought 
of an incident she wished to tell her two-year-old daughter. 
Something prevented her telling it just then, and in a few 
minutes the child told it to her. Mrs. Barber is confident 
that no one else knew the incident, and that she had not 
already told it. She wrote out the experience five days 
later. 

7. A lady, when asked bv^ her husband what she was 
thinking of, said that she felt as if two friends of theirs 
had just been married, but she did not believe it was so 
because she thought they would not marry in Lent. The 
husband then felt the same way, and later they found that 
the marriage had taken place. Two ladies corroborate the 
account, which was written out four days later. 

8. Mrs. Gates constantly has premonitions. One after- 
noon she felt that something was happening to her son, 
and later found that he had been attacked by an insane 
patient. The account was written within a week, and cor- 
roborated by one person. 

9. Mr. Jukes on waking one morning recognised the 
voice of an old school-fellow saying to him, ' l Your brother 
Mark and Harriet are both gone." As far as Mr. Jukes 
knew both were well, but he wrote the words on a scrap of 
paper and later copied them into his diary, which Mr. 
Gurney saw. Later he received word that his brother had 
died one day after, and his sister three days after, the warn- 
ing, of cholera. 

10. While dressing one morning Mrs. Gladstone went to 
a cupboard and took out a piece of serge to see whether it 
would do for a curtain for a sick woman. When she vis- 
ited the woman the next day, her husband told Mrs. Glad- 
stone that the day before his wife had seen her holding 
up a curtain in both hands, saying it was not long enough. 
This was recorded the same day. 

338 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

11. Mr. Haydn noted this in his diary: " Jnst after 
going to bed, while I was reading, I heard steps outside and 
in the passage as of a female walking aimlessly. Thinking 
it might be Louey, I called, but there was no answer. Im- 
mediately after the sounds ceased the clock struck eleven. ' ' 

Later he found that a friend, dying in delirium, had at 
about that time raved of being in his house talking to him. 

This shows the possibilities of error. Mr. Haydn did 
not get up to see that there really was no one in the hall, 
and many noises sound like irregular footsteps in a quiet 
house. 

12. Mr. Grand records in his diary that the previous 
night he woke up with the feeling of a presence which he 
could not see, but which told him that it had to do with a 
friend named Bruce. He thought Bruce 's father was dead, 
but it turned out to be Bruce 's brother. 

In his " Naturalisation of the Supernatural," Mr. 
Podmore gives the following cases which come within our 
time limit of one week : 

13. Dr. Wiltse carried on various experiments in 1891 
along this line, with the following as an experiment at a 
distance. He agreed with Mr. Reseco that after both had 
gone to bed, at 9.55, he should attempt to produce a certain 
image in Mr. Reseco 's mind. So he thought of an African 
jungle at night with a hunter's tent in front, a tiger's eyes 
glaring out, and an ill-defined form in the background. 
Mr. Reseco saw a large mass of bushes, apparently rose- 
bushes, with two balls of fire in the midst of them, behind 
which appeared an indistinct bulk. 

We are not told whether each wrote out his account 
before seeing the other, for though it is said that the next 
morning they exchanged notes, the phrase may mean only 
that they compared impressions. But supposing that the 
exchange of notes was literal, the coincidence, while inter- 
esting, is explicable otherwise. The characteristic thing, 
the balls of fire, may have been simply the incorporation of 

339 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

phosphenies, which are especially noticeable in darkness, 
into a vague landscape. As Professor Ladd has well shown, 
retinal impressions are very often the sensory groundwork 
of images, and any one who has taken the trouble to watch 
them with his eyes closed must realise their great sugges- 
tiveness of ideas of all sorts. 

In the various other experiments in transferring thought 
at a distance, none of which are reported later than 1895, 
there is no attempt whatever to nullify the effect of natural 
associations, or of community of thought between agent and 
percipient, and in all the instances recorded the two par- 
ticipants seem to have been friends, so that Vaschide's re- 
marks on this subject are applicable to them. It is very 
curious that Mr. Podmore, writing in 1907 on these ex- 
periments, makes no references anywhere to the effects of 
various mental habits. 

14. In Phantasms of the Living we get similar experi- 
ments, such as Gibert's and Janet's experiments with 
Madam B. Madam B. in the hypnotic state was unusually 
suggestible ; so much so that the two operators became con- 
vinced of telepathic power. On three recorded occasions 
Gibert, while Madam B. was hypnotised, gave a mental or- 
der, putting his face close to hers but saying nothing. The 
order was then written out on a piece of paper, which was 
kept usually by Janet. On the one successful occasion she 
was ordered, the next day at noon, to lock the doors of the 
house, and she did so, giving as a reason that she did not 
want the physicians to come in to hypnotise her. Myers 
also records further experiments with her in hypnotising 
her at a distance. On three occasions recorded he was suc- 
cessful in doing this, at times when she would not naturally 
be expecting it, and on one he brought her to his house. 

15. Hericourt, in 1878, had similar successes with 
Madam D., which he reported to Richet. 

Podmore gives further cases also: 

16. Writing the next day, Professor Blank records that 

340 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

on the previous evening, while at work in his library, he 
suddenly had the impression that there was a fire at the 
Opera, where his wife and daughter then were, but that 
it was nothing serious. This was about 10.30. When they 
returned at twelve, they told him that about 8.45 there 
had been an alarm of fire, but it amounted to little. The 
Professor's sister also had the same impression. 

17. Mr. Young, on arising from supper one evening, 
had a presentiment, and exclaimed, " There! I have just 
had an intimation that Eobert is dead." He was called to 
a customer, but was so impressed that he first wrote out 
the matter in his diary, but, unfortunately, not on the dated 
leaves, but at the back, undated. His account itself was 
written two weeks after the event. Two days later he re- 
ceived word that his brother-in-law, who had been bed- 
ridden for two years, had died at 7.45 that evening. 

18. Mrs. D., while holding a photograph of a friend 
and describing her to some one present, suddenly felt im- 
pelled to tell what she was doing at that instant, the dress 
she had on, the furniture of her sitting room, etc. She 
wrote out the account the same afternoon, and also wrote 
about it to the friend. 

19. Mr. H. B. dreamed one night that he saw his fiancee 
with one side of her face much swollen. He wakened, and 
on going to sleep again saw her face floating in smoke. 
The dreams depressed him and he wrote to her about them, 
to find that she had gone out to see a fire that night, had 
caught cold, and had toothache and a swollen face as a 
result. 

Her letter in response to him was written about a week 
after the event, and his own account about two months after. 

20. Miss C. Clarkson, while out boating with a party 
of friends, fell into the water, and while being pulled in 
by two gentlemen told them not to pull so hard, for they 
hurt her, to which they answered that they must pull if 
they were to get her in. On that night her stepmother had 

341 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

a dream that Miss Clarkson's sister was drowning, and she 
pulled her out by the hair, the sister saying that she hurt 
her, and the stepmother answering that she had better be 
hurt than drown. 

Miss Clarkson's account was written only three days 
after the event, and the stepmother's eight days. The step- 
mother also told her dream to the sister before hearing of 
the accident. 

21. Mrs. Mann one night dreamed of an old friend, 
who appeared greatly altered. The next morning she told 
her husband about it, and later found that he had died 
the day after her dream. The account was written three 
weeks later, and her husband noted in his diary at the 
time the dream. 

22. Mr. Brierly, writing about a week after, tells that 
he dreamed one night of the death of Lohmann, a cele- 
brated cricketer, and found the next day that the death 
had occurred. It is not noted that he knew him, and we 
infer from the narrative that he did not. His wife testi- 
fies that he told her about the dream at breakfast, and be- 
fore they heard of the death. 

23. Mrs. Knight had a nurse between whom and her- 
self there existed a peculiarly strong affection. This nurse 
had told her that dreaming of insects on the face and neck 
was a certain sign of death, but Mrs. Knight had never 
believed it. One night she awoke with the feeling of being 
rocked, then she saw a light, and then felt a presence hov- 
ering over her. She felt that some one was dying and, on 
wondering who, heard a loud rap. She got out of bed 
and looked at her watch, knelt down to pray, and after 
getting back into bed saw flashes of gold in a silver light. 
Two hours later she woke up with the feeling of insects 
on her forehead and neck, and thought of her old nurse's 
saying. The next morning she learned that the nurse had 
died at almost exactly the time she looked at her watch. 

A few days later she wrote out the account in her diary. 

342 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

At the time of the hallucinations she did not think of the 
nurse as the one dying. 

24. Mr. Godfrey, the day after his experience, wrote 
Mr. Podmore an account of it. At 10.45 one night he en- 
deavoured to make himself appear to a friend at the foot 
of her bed. He soon fell asleep, but awakened about 3.30 
from a dream in which he had asked the lady if she had 
seen him the night before, and she had replied that she 
had seen him sitting beside her. The lady on her side also 
noted the next day that about 3.30 she had wakened with 
the feeling of some one being in the room, that she had 
been restless and gone down-stairs after some soda water, 
and on coming up had seen Mr. Godfrey standing under 
the window on the staircase. She held up her candle and 
stared at him in amazement, and as she went up the stair- 
case he disappeared. She was not frightened, but did not 
sleep afterward. Mrs. has seen before this two phan- 
tasms, and on two other occasions Mr. Godfrey experi- 
mented with her, once unsuccessfully and once successfully. 
In no case did she know beforehand of the experiment. 

25. June 17, 1894, at 12 p.m., Miss Danvers made this 
note : ' ' I write this just before trying to appear to Mrs. 
Fleetwood. My hair is down and I am going to lie down 
and try to appear with my eyes closed. ' ' 

Mrs. Fleetwood notes : ' ' Sunday night, June 17, 1894, 
I woke from my first sleep to see Edith Danvers appar- 
ently kneeling on an easy chair by my bedside, her profile 
turned toward me, her hair flowing, and efes closed or 

looking quite down After I was fully awake and able 

to reason with myself, the figure still remained, and then 
gradually faded, like a dissolving view. I got up and 
looked at the clock. It was just twelve. I was alone in the 
room. As I now write, it is about two minutes after 
twelve/' 

The next day these memoranda and a letter were sent 
to Mr. Myers. 

343 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

26. Miss R., on waking up one morning and sitting up 
to get something from her table, saw Mrs. J. W.'s face in 
two places nearly or quite at once. She noted the time and 
intended to write out the vision in the morning, but forgot 
it until she heard two days later that that night J. W. had 
died, and that at about the time she saw Mrs. J. W. 's face, 
Mrs. J. W. and her daughter-in-law were talking about her 
kindness to them. She then wrote out the account. 

This is an excellent illustration of the defects in all tes- 
timony in which the vision is not written out prior to the 
knowledge of the death. What proof is there that this is 
not an illusory memory, especially if, as seems to be the 
case, Miss R. is given to vivid images and feelings of pre- 
monition? Such a case, instead of making us believe that 
telepathic communications are far more common than is 
generally supposed, convince us that illusions of memory 
even within a few days of the event may be so common as 
to invalidate every case except those in which the halluci- 
nation is written out in detail at the time, and before the 
corresponding event is known. 

27. Mr. Grant, while in Brazil, one night had an im- 
pression of death, and connected it with Lord Z. 's family. 
Lord Z. himself died that day. A month later, no word 
having been heard meantime of the death, the impression 
was renewed, and the next morning Mr. Grant wrote at 
length in his diary his uneasiness during the night, seeing 
the face of Lord Z., wanting to draw him with his head 
sunk on his chest as if asleep, feeling pity for the rest of 
the family, etc., but not for him. The day after this he 
heard of the death. 

28. Miss Lilian Whiting, writing four days later, says 
that Miss Kate Field, then dead, wakened her one night, 
speaking about a letter that Lowell had written her. Miss 
Whiting was then writing a biography of Miss Field. The 
vision continued the excited talking in spite of Miss Whit- 
ing's soothing remarks, and so Miss Whiting got up, turned 

344 



— ^M* 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

on the light, and looked through the book mentioned by 
the vision, rinding there an important letter from Lowell, 
which would certainly have been omitted from the biog- 
raphy had it not been for the vision. 

Mr. Podmore thinks that this is probably simply a case 
of emergence from the subconscious of forgotten knowledge, 
which clothed itself in dramatic form. 

29. Mr. Conley, a farmer, was found dead one day, 
while away from home, and the clothes that he had on 
when found were thrown away. On hearing of the death 
his daughter fell into a swoon, and when she awoke from 
it she said that her father had appeared to her and told 
her that after leaving home he had sewed a large bundle 
of bills into his gray shirt, with a piece of her red dress, 
and that they were still there. She wanted them to get 
the clothes he had on when found, and described accurately 
the clothes in which he was buried, though none of the fam- 
ily had seen them. She then fell into another swoon, and, 
on recovering, again urged that some one go to Dubuque 
after the clothes, and as she was near death and the phy- 
sician thought it might relieve her mind to have them, her 
brother went after them, though not believing at all in her 
vision. But the bills were found as she had described, and 
the coroner said that the clothes in which the father was 
buried were as described. The account was written within 
two weeks after the event, with corroboration from the 
various officials. 

30. Mile. Stramm, while writing automatically, wrote 
that August Duvanel was dead from a clot of blood. He 
had been her suitor, but she had not heard of him for five 
years. This writing was given to Professor Aksakoff, and 
he made a note of the occurrence at the time. Later it was 
found that M. Duvanel had committed suicide about five 
hours before Mile. Stramm received her message. 

31. For clairvoyance close at hand Podmore thinks 
there is no evidence, some sort of trickery or hyperesthesia 

25 345 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

explaining all such cases. But for travelling clairvoyance 
there is more evidence. He gives, however, no cases which 
were written out within a year after the event. As to pre- 
vision, Mrs. Verrall furnishes one case. On lying down 
she heard a curious ticking, which she associates with dis- 
aster, and at once mailed a note to Mr. Myers telling of it. 
The next day, her sister, on landing from a steamer, stepped 
off the rail, and though rescued without injury was in great 
danger for a few minutes. On three other occasions, when 
the incident is not given, Mrs. Verrall's ticking has warned 
of disaster. 

32. Mr. Glardon's aunt predicted that she would die 
within six weeks, and Mr. Glardon sent the Society for 
Psychical Research a note of the prediction with the time 
of expiration. She died the day before the limit of time. 
In such cases Podmore thinks the prophecy, usually given 
in trance or dream, feels the latent disease, and works 
itself out. 

33. Early one morning Mr. Lane, an actor, saw the 
death scene of the fellow-actor whose understudy he was. 
That night this actor was stabbed, and his death occurred 
as Mr. Lane had dreamed it. Mr. Lane's account was 
obtained four days later, and also the testimony of two 
other members of the company that Mr. Lane had told 
them of his dream before the death. 

34. Mrs. Carleton dreamed that a friend, Colonel Cog- 
hill, had fallen under a horse, and wrote him to that effect, 
her first letter for about a year. He answered saying that 
it must have been one of the dreams that go by contraries, 
for he never had felt better, but that afternoon he had a 
fall of the character described. His account was written 
within a month, and his answer to Mrs. Carleton 's letter 
is given, with corroboration from his brother. Mrs. Carle- 
ton frequently has previsions of illness, even if trivial. 

All in all, Podmore 's position is not essentially differ- 
ent from what it has been since the beginning. He be- 

346 



TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA 

lieves in telepathy, and argues from it as a true cause on 
all necessary occasions. He is in no way convinced of Spir- 
itism, and shows up the frauds of physical phenomena and 
the weak spots in psychical evidence, although endeavour- 
ing to hold his judgment in suspense. 

Both in Phantasms of the Living and Mr. Podmore's 
book already quoted from, some illustrations are given of 
cases of reciprocal telepathy, that is, cases in which both 
the persons concerned get a message. 

They give no cases, however, where the account was 
written out in less than six weeks, and so we will not quote 
any, especially as Mr. Podmore concludes his chapter on 
this subject by quoting Mr. Gurney's remarks, made in 
1886, that the evidence for such occurrences was then so 
" small that the genuineness of the type might fairly be 
called in question," and adds that " the twenty-two years 
which have elapsed cannot be said to have added material 
confirmation. ' ' 



CHAPTER XXI 

TELEPATHY AND ALLIED PHENOMENA: A CENSUS OF 
HALLUCINATIONS 

In 1889 the Society for Psychical Research began to 
collect reports on hallucinations in answer to the following 
question: Have you ever, when believing yourself to be 
completely awake, had a vivid impression of seeing or being 
touched by a living being or inanimate object, or of hear- 
ing a voice, which impression, so far as you could discover, 
was not due to any external physical cause? 

The collecting of reports extended over several years, 
and was concluded * when 17,000 had come in, the numbers 
of men and women being approximately equal. The col- 
lectors were 410 in number — 223 women and 187 men. 
More than a quarter of them were friends of the Committee, 
and some were friends of these friends. One-third were 
members of the Society for Psychical Research, and one- 
sixth friends of theirs. 

The people reporting were principally from the profes- 
sional class, though some were from the lower. 

Out of the 17,000 answers, 15,316 answered no, and 
1,684, or 9.9 per cent, yes. Of the no answers 7,717 were 
men and 7,599 were women ; of the yes, 655, or 7.8 per cent, 
were men and 1,029, or twelve per cent, were women. 

In discussing the trustworthiness of these reports as 
representative there are two sources of error, viz., that the 
persons are a selected class among whom hallucinations are 
more common than among the general population, and that 

i See Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. x. 

348 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

forgetfulness of such experiences greatly lowers the per 
cent. As to the first, the Committee asked the collectors 
to mark cases where they knew beforehand that there had 
been a hallucination, and also to report on their own ten- 
dency. They acknowledge that there is reason in some cases 
to suspect selection, but believe it counterbalanced on the 
whole by other things, especially by their request that each 
collector shall get twenty-five answers, this being a large 
enough number, so that he would be glad to get any one 
to help him out. 

Forgetfulness, of course, cannot be remedied, but they 
make elaborate calculations based on the frequency of hal- 
lucinations in the recent years, and conclude that the num- 
ber of real hallucinations is probably from four to six and 
one-half times larger than reported. They do not, how- 
ever, base their report on this estimate, but on the actual 
number reported. 

They go into great detail on the character of the hal- 
lucinations, whether visual, auditory, etc., giving many data 
which ought to be very valuable to psychologists, but which 
we shall ignore at this point, our interest here being solely 
in the Committee's claim to have established as a fact that 
veridical hallucinations are not due to chance. 

We will only mention here certain facts bearing on the 
matter, as follows : Out of 1,112 visual apparitions, 830 rep- 
resented human beings, and more than two-fifths of this 
830 are known to the percipient. Of those known, forty- 
five per cent are of persons often seen, and twenty per cent 
more are near relatives. Positions and movements impos- 
sible to actual people are rarely found. Also, thirty-four 
per cent of those having hallucinations have had more 
than one. 

So far we seem to be describing simply the normal 
workings of a vivid imagination. 

Now as to the conditions under which these are seen. 
On the whole, the percipients appear to be in at least fair 

349 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

health, though in a few cases probably some eye trouble 
may have affected the hallucination, and in a few excessive 
nervousness. In 40 cases there was probably overstrain 
of some sort, and in 220 some sort of emotional disturb- 
ance. Over one-third of the hallucinations occurred when 
the person was still in bed, or just after a sleep, and 
sixty -two per cent of the visual, when the percipient was 
alone. In 14 cases the percipient was expecting to see the 
person. 

So much for the general conditions. Coming now to 
death coincidences, which give the chief evidence for telep- 
athy, the Committee defines a death coincidence as one in 
which the hallucination is seen within twelve hours before 
or after the death. It takes this limit arbitrarily. After 
analysing and sifting the evidence, such coincidences are 
found to be in number 62, but to allow for further eviden- 
tial defects, 20 more are taken out; to allow for chance 
coincidences, 8 ; and for two suspicious cases, 2 more, leav- 
ing in all 30 cases which they consider thoroughly well 
proved. Now this is a much larger number, they main- 
tain, than could be obtained by chance. After dropping 
some doubtful yes answers, they have 1,300 left, and the 
ratio of 30 to 1,300 is about 1 : 43. But, they say, if chance 
alone were at work here the number of veridical death 
apparitions would be the same as the probability that any 
given person will die on a given day, which is the same as 
the annual death rate, or, in England for the decade 1880 
to 1890, 1 in 19,000. That is, out of every 19,000 people 
who have hallucinations, 1 would be a death coincidence, if 
chance alone operated. But we have in this Census 30 
death coincidences in 1,300 cases, which is 440 times as 
many as we should expect. In fact, we ought not to ex- 
pect even 1 death coincidence in only 1,300 cases, and so 
any argument against a causal relation must dispose of 
every single case, for even one or two is more than chance 
would allow. 

350 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

The arguments which may be brought against these 
eases, say the Committee, are either that (1) there has 
been much deception in the reports; (2) that they are a 
very carefully selected lot, not really representative; (3) 
that even if they are true, they are not due to telepathy 
but to normal conditions, such as expectation. As to the 
first, the testimony given in each case will answer this 
argument, and this they consider when taking up each 
case in detail. As to the second, the Committee states 
that in 26 of the cases the collectors did not know that 
there had been any experience, and this disposes of chance 
coincidence even if we throw out all the other cases, but it 
does not entirely dispose of the argument that all the 
hallucinations may come from a class especially subject to 
them. 

As to the influence of expectation, etc., in 8 out of the 
30 cases the illness was known to be serious, and in 2 others 
the percipient was troubled over it, but even if these 10 
cases are omitted we have 20 left, many more than chance 
would explain. 

Let us now consider in detail the 30 cases on which the 
Committee bases its arguments. (These are given in Pro- 
ceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, vol. x, pp. 
207-44.) 

As the Committee well says, the best sort of evidence is 
a note made at the time or a letter written to a friend. 
In 6 of these 30 cases such a note was made, but in only 
1 of them was it preserved in the very ambiguous form of 
these marks ^\^^ made in a diary, the percipient her- 
self being unable to tell what the marks meant, other than 
that they were intended to recall this hallucination. There 
is, therefore, not one shred of contemporary documentary 
evidence that is worth anything. 

Now as to the lapse of time before the experience was 
written out and the available testimony obtained. In one 
case this was done about seven months after the event. 

351 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

In this case a note was taken at the time, but was not pre- 
served, and when the news of the death arrived the man 
found, on comparison, that the apparition occurred on the 
same day as the death. The wife also testified to the note 
and the comparison. But there was a discrepancy of four 
days between Mr. A.'s original report and his statement 
made to Mr. Sidgwick in person, and why we should trust 
his later statement, which was the one coincident with the 
death, more than the earlier, it is hard to see, even though 
the wife testifies to the correct one. 

In this case the percipient knew that the aunt was not 
well, but was not especially alarmed about her. 

Of the remaining 29 cases, 3 are written out within five 
years after the event; 5 between five and ten years after; 
7 between eleven and fifteen years after ; 4 between sixteen 
and twenty years after ; 4 between twenty-one and twenty- 
five ; 4 between twenty-six and thirty, and 1 forty-six and 1 
fifty-eight years after. 

Does it not seem curious that a Committee cognisant of 
Mr. Davey's brilliant demonstration of the transpositions 
and lapses of memory within even one hour after the 
event should base a supposedly scientific argument for 
telepathy on evidence of this sort t We need in no respect 
impeach the sincerity of the witnesses or the investigators 
in order to assert that, merely on the ground of the lapse 
of time between the event and the record, these cases are 
worth nothing whatever. We cannot, of course, positively 
disprove each individual case because we lack the oppor- 
tunity to interrogate the witnesses, and even if we could, 
their lapses of memory would not make further testimony 
against any more valuable than this is for. We do not, 
therefore, assert that these cases are not genuine. They 
may be. We only say that the proof of their genuineness 
is not complete. 

In these 30 cases we have no contemporary evidence 
save some unintelligible marks in one account. We have 

352 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

but one account written within a year of the event, and 
in this there is a considerable discrepancy between the 
original report and the later discussion, which justifies us 
in questioning the man's memory of the event itself. If 
the memory was thus untrustworthy within a year, why 
should we suppose it to be trustworthy in longer lapses of 
time? 

For my own part — and I think many students of 
testimony and of memory lapses would agree with me — I 
am convinced that in the end no testimony as to veridical 
hallucinations or any other form of telepathy will stand 
unless it is written down by the percipient at the time of 
having the experience. Stern's experiments upon testi- 
mony corroborate Davey's earlier ones on memory, show- 
ing that even where an account is written out immediately 
after the event there are notable lacuna? and errors, while 
the later questioning only increases the number of errors 
because it suggests incorrect inferences to the percipient. 
According to this, the questioning to which the Society's in- 
vestigators subjected those reporting hallucinations, instead 
of bringing out truth, more probably increased errors, be- 
cause the suggestivenss of some questions and the subcon- 
scious tendencies to consistency would vitiate the testimony 
of the most honest witness. 

Nevertheless, in order to show just how weak the char- 
acter of the cases cited is, I shall give in considerable de- 
tail all accounts written out within a year after the occur- 
rence, and show their defectiveness in other respects as 
well. 

If the thirty test cases of veridical hallucinations are 
thus weak, much more so are the others, which the Com- 
mittee itself grants are not sufficiently evidential to be 
cited. 

A very strong case for the objectivity of the hallucina- 
tion 's cause could be made out if only sufficient numbers of 
collective hallucinations could be secured. Several of these 

353 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

are given, but only one is more recent than two years, and, 
strangely enough, none have any contemporary documents. 
The one exception was described five months after the 
event by Miss H. Wilson. She and her cousin were read- 
ing one Sunday evening, and an old servant was sitting in 
the same room with them. Suddenly the two sisters became 
conscious that the light was obscured, and one of them saw 
a thick substance pass between her and the candles, the 
other not really seeing anything but the darkening of the 
room. At three the next morning the brother of the ser- 
vant died. 

Again, haunted houses and the traditional ghost ought, 
if genuine, to afford evidence for the existence after death. 
The Committee found in all thirty cases where the evidence 
was good enough to afford some proof of a supernormal 
origin. In fifteen of these the apparitions were not associ- 
ated with any particular deceased person; in the other fif- 
teen the deceased was not supposed to be known to the per- 
son seeing the apparition. Not all of these stories are given 
in the Census, and of those given very few have any con- 
temporary documents or were written within a year after 
the occurrence, though they are splendid ghost stories. In 
one case, Fanny Lewitt, a housemaid, tells of a house in 
which she worked where all the family were so alarmed by 
the ghost of a lady, who appeared in various costumes and 
at different rooms, that they moved out between nights and 
never went back. But there is no other evidence than 
Fanny 's word. 

Miss E. L. T., writing fifteen months after the first 
event, tells of a ghost which haunted a house where she was 
visiting, during the years 1890 and 1891, which was seen 
by various members of the family and servants. It was 
not identified with any one, but seemed to wander about the 
house, making music now and then, and then it went away 
as causelessly as it had come. But why did not some of the 
many people who saw this gray man write out accounts and 

354 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

get witnesses to sign them at the time? What an opportu- 
nity was lost here ! 

In another case, a physician and his wife, a married 
daughter with five children (four daughters and a son), 
and a grown son, Mr. S., whose wife had recently died, 
were living together when an apparition, supposed to be 
this dead wife, appeared, and was seen first by two of the 
children, aged about ten and eleven, and a friend. At vari- 
ous times it was seen by the children, by servants, and oc- 
casionally by friends. It usually was near Mr. S.'s bed- 
room, whence also came mysterious noises, and it stayed 
until Mr. S. married again and left the house. Six ac- 
counts are given, written by the various people who saw 
this ghost when they were children, and to the reader unac- 
quainted with the persons concerned, all of them strongly 
suggest that Mr. S. adopted this as an easy way to keep his 
sister's children out of his room. One writer says, " Con- 
stantly when hiding in his room we thought we heard 
sighs and groans that were quite unaccountable. We were 
naturally frightened at this, and soon learned to avoid play- 
ing in his room." The figure always came from and dis- 
appeared here, its face was never seen, and upon its return 
terrific noises were heard inside which deterred any one 
from exploring. Again, at first only noises were heard, 
and after a theory had been formed as to their cause the 
apparition was seen. The young man may at first simply 
have wanted to deter the children from playing in his 
room, and then, when he saw their explanation of the 
noises, a somewhat warped sense of humour may have led 
him to impersonate his wife and thereby still more effectu- 
ally keep them from troubling him. There is no testimony 
from him on the matter, which itself is suspicious, as he 
was the person most concerned. 

Another curious case is one described by Mr. G. S. (p. 
358). His first experience had been a year before, and he 
had written an account at the time, which had been lost. 

355 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

A year later he wrote to one of the Society for Psychical 
Research collectors that the same apparition had again been 
seen twice within nine days preceding his letter, first by a 
lady guest and then by a housemaid, both times in different 
rooms. Mrs. R. and Martha gave descriptions to Mr. S., 
which convinced him that they saw the same ghost as he 
did, and he thinks that Martha had not heard of Mrs. R. 's 
experience before seeing the ghost. Now the sequel is that 
nine months later the daughter-in-law of Mrs. R.'s hostess 
came from Australia, and at a dinner, when Mrs. R. was 
present, Mrs. R. recognised her as her ghost. Martha did 
not, until Mrs. R. called her attention to her, and Mr. S. 
is rather dubious as to whether the face is like his ghost's. 
It seemed, however, that this young lady had been ill in 
Australia, and used to amuse herself by trying to picture 
her husband's old home. But even if she had succeeded in 
making her astral self visible to those occupying the home, 
it had not given her any knowledge, for she did not recog- 
nise any of the rooms ! 

Mrs. Malleson, on a Sunday evening, had a strong im- 
pression that a friend, who was known to be ill but sup- 
posed to be out of danger, had died, and on Monday 
evening she saw a vision of her very distinctly. The next 
morning she heard that she had died between 3 and 
4 a.m. Sunday morning. Mrs. Malleson took notes on this 
about a month later ; but seven years later, when she wrote 
the account for the Society for Psychical Research, neither 
her husband nor daughter remembered her story distinctly 
enough to furnish any testimony. 

One evening Mrs. Hall and her husband heard a knock- 
ing, and when she turned to the door she saw a man, for- 
merly her employer, who said, " Well, Agnes, how are 
you? " She exclaimed in recognition, and he vanished. He 
died within a week or so of that time. The account was 
written within a week after the occurrence by her husband. 

In five cases of death coincidences described respect- 

356 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

ively two, four, ten, twenty-three, and twenty-seven years 
after the event, the deceased had promised that, if possible, 
he would return and make his presence felt to the person 
seeing the apparition. This, of course, would be a strong 
element of expectancy in any case, and as the lapse of time 
before writing out the event may have led to some confu- 
sion as to the actual coincidence of the ghost with the death, 
we would seem to have a plausible theory as to the origin 
of these five ghosts. The Committee lays considerable em- 
phasis on the fact that in all five of these cases there was 
no expectation of the death, and, if the evidence was good 
that the apparition was really not seen before, their argu- 
ment would hold. They claim, of course, that in such cases, 
such as when the daughter saw her mother lying in her 
coffin and afterward learned of her death, even after 
twenty-three years the memory would not transpose the 
order of events so exciting emotionally. But, on the con- 
trary, it is just such events that memory is likely to trans- 
pose, especially where it is aided, as in these cases, by the 
previous promise to appear, and when the longing to be 
certain of survival will unconsciously weight all the evi- 
dence in favour of it. Again, they cite cases in which the 
phantasm gave the percipient information unknown to him, 
in some instances of the death, in another of a scar, etc., 
but in none of these cases are there contemporary documents, 
and none was written out less than four years after its 
occurrence. 

Mr. Podmore also takes up the discussion of poltergeists 
and haunted houses, giving some first-class ghost stories of 
recent occurrence. 

For instance, Mrs. 'Donnell, writing three months after 
the event, says that she had moved into furnished rooms, 
and even the first evening felt unwell and heard footsteps 
overhead in a room, which she found was unoccupied. The 
second night was worse, and the third night she kept a light, 
but soon felt footsteps overhead, and later, on turning 

357 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

toward the wall, saw a horrible figure, with one hand close 
to her face. She covered her face, but after a while con- 
vinced herself that it was all imagination, looked again, 
saw it again, shrieked in terror, put out her hand to ward 
it off, felt as if she were clutched by death, and knew no 
more. The figure she saw was of a small, dark man, with 
small hands, dressed in a very tattered black suit. The next 
night she stayed in her daughter's room, and in the mid- 
dle of the night her locked door opened and a small, dark, 
gentlemanly young man walked in, said, ' ' Oh, so you have 
the Scotchman 's room, ' ' smiled pleasantly, and walked out. 
Then she told her friends ; inquiries were made, and they 
found that, a few weeks before, a young man, answering to 
the appearance of the ghost, had committed suicide. 

Mr. Podmore says they have many similar cases, and 
in his most recent volume, " Telepathic Hallucinations, ' ' 
offers the ingenious theory that what we call ghosts are in 
some cases hallucinations in which the person seeing the 
ghost is telepathically affected by the mind either of the 
person seen or, if he was dead at the time of the vision, by 
the minds of those who knew he had died. He does not 
even deny that the mind of the dead person himself may 
perhaps affect the living, but rather inclines to the first- 
mentioned form. He still quotes the Census of Hallucina- 
tions as proof that coincidences are more numerous than 
chance would allow, and believes telepathy to be a proven 
fact. 

The Committee concludes its work as follows: 

1. With regard to death coincidences : * ' We have shown 
that — after making the most ample allowance for all ascer- 
tainable sources of error — the number of these experiences 
remains far greater than the hypothesis of chance coin- 
cidence will account for. 

2. " We have presented the further evidence for telep- 
athy afforded by cases in which the improbability of chance 
coincidence does not allow or admit of the same exact cak 

358 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

culation as that discussed in Chap. XII (on death co- 
incidences), although their cumulative force, in any fair 
estimate of the whole evidence, must be regarded as con- 
siderable. 

3. ' ' We have endeavoured to estimate impartially, and 
illustrate by the most noteworthy cases in the Census, the 
evidence tending to connect the seeing of apparitions with 
certain localities ; but we have not found any strong reasons 
for attributing phenomena of this kind to the agency of 
the dead. 

4. " Stronger arguments, however, for accepting the 
possibility of communication from the dead to the living 
may be drawn from other cases included in our returns; 
accordingly, in the final Chapter, we have given careful 
consideration to these arguments, although we do not re- 
gard them as in themselves conclusive. ' ' 

Their general conclusion is: " Between deaths and ap- 
paritions of the dying person a connection exists which is 
not due to chance alone. This we hold as a proved fact." 

And the report is signed by Henry Sidgwick, Alice 
Johnson, F. W. H. Myers, Frank Podmore, and Eleanor 
Mildred Sidgwick. 

The general bias of the Committee at that time seemed 
to point away from communication from dead to living, but 
toward telepathy. 

In the general discussion of telepathy Messrs. Podmore, 
Gurney, and Myers distinguish their evidence from such 
as that given for witchcraft and magical occurrences by 
saying that theirs comes for the most part from educated 
persons, who had no tendencies to belief in such phenomena, 
and that, furthermore, such cases do not fit in with prev- 
alent habits of thought and so are not readily accepted, 
as are apparitions of the dead. 

With all due respect to the authors, I would question 
this last statement. It is the universal tendency of all 
minds to believe in images just as they do in facts. Locke 

359 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

tells us that if but one idea is present to a person's mind 
he inevitably believes in its truth, and this remark has been 
verified again and again by modern hypnotists. Even phi- 
losophers show this, Locke having tendencies that way, and 
Descartes and Spinoza stating distinctly that the marks 
of truth in an idea are its clearness and distinctness. The 
internal testimony of an idea to its own veridical nature 
has played a part in philosophy that has by no means been 
unimportant. Now, any person who has a distinct image 
of another, or a distinct emotional state in regard to him, 
which arises spontaneously, and whose cause, therefore, he 
does not know, tends to refer that image or emotion to the 
person as cause, and if he finds that at about that time the 
person in question was thinking of him, his instinctive tend- 
ency becomes a conscious one, and is accepted as truth in 
proportion as he is lacking in the ability to test for cause 
and effect relations. All of us have known cases where we 
have received a letter from a friend on the same day that 
we have mailed one to that same friend, and it is amusing 
to see how naturally the idea pops up that there is a causal 
relationship between the two events, even though the friend 
may live in California and we in New England. Such 
beliefs have been fostered from time immemorial by our 
ignorance of the brain and of psychic activities, and our 
assumptions of psychic media which may transmit thought 
waves. There may be psychic media, and there may be 
thought waves — he is a bold man who denies them in toto — 
but our task is not to assume them, and believe that we have 
explained any phenomenon when we have referred it to 
them, but to demonstrate them under conditions which ad- 
mit of no other explanation. The authors of these vol- 
umes do, indeed, set before themselves this ideal of demon- 
stration, but they do not anywhere seem to see the defects 
in their testimony, and their attitude shows this tendency 
to belief too clearly for the sceptical reader to be convinced 
by their evidence. 

360 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

Furthermore, although they discuss at considerable 
length the possible errors due to memory, such as transpo- 
sition of facts, forgetfulness of dates, and the general tend- 
ency after a lapse of time to make all the details congruous, 
they say " that they have not detected definite instances 
of this sort of inaccuracy." But how could they, even if 
such existed ? There are no contemporary records by which 
to test the person's memory. 

Still more, one must remark here that their good faith 
in the veracity of their communicators seems to us too easily 
given. In some instances the communicators are not known 
at all ; in others, only to friends ; in others, they have been 
visited by one of the authors, who records his " impres- 
sion " that they are persons of good common sense and 
veracity. But if there is any department of fact where 
human testimony is unreliable it is just this one. People 
who have the best intentions in the world lose their heads 
here, and so twist things as to be utterly unreliable. Still 
further, few things are more unreliable than a snap judg- 
ment as to a person's common sense. It has been my obser- 
vation that people who have vivid images and emotions 
are, more than others, likely to assert their own acuteness 
of judgment, and to talk with great confidence about their 
ability to observe correctly. Their own vivid consciousness 
of what is passing in their minds creates the feeling of 
truth, and leads to confident assertion, while at the same 
time the ideas may be wholly at variance with fact. This 
phase of the characters of people given to having telepathic 
communications, veridical apparitions, spirit communica- 
tions, etc., has not, I believe, been sufficiently appreciated 
by those taking their testimony. I have been studying vari- 
ous cases of mediumship, both incipient and developed, 
and it seems to me that one of its marks is just the vivid- 
ness of the mental imagery and the assertion that because 
vivid it is true. I have noted that the persons who tell me 
that they have seen ghosts, or have had warnings of deaths, 
26 361 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

etc., are usually persons of a positive habit of mind, certain 
of their own conclusions, and likely to be visualisers, 
although it is a common idea that such people are likely 
to be dreamy and unpractical. They may, indeed, be un- 
practical, in that they may have no interest in housework, 
but I do not believe that their mental structure is jellylike 
and inchoate. 

Now then, take a person with this turn of mind, and 
suppose he wakes up at night with that vague feeling of 
presence which all of us have at times. This sense of pres- 
ence startles him, and a vivid picture flashes before him of 
some friend. We cannot tell what friend will come before 
him, because we do not know enough about the deeper cur- 
rents of association and emotion which determine such 
things. But some friend comes into his mind, and he then 
questions what this means. Is the friend thinking of him ? 
Is he ill, or dead ? And then perhaps he sees his friend in 
pain or in his coffin. Now if, later on, he learns that the 
friend died at that time, or was ill, or was thinking of him, 
his inference to a causal relationship is certain; but if he 
gets no such news, what then ? The image is soon totally 
forgotten or remembered as one of the chance ideas 
that everybody has. But for us the most valuable ques- 
tion that could be answered is what proportion such unful- 
filled ideas bear to fulfilled ones, and how far similar 
habits of thought will account for community of ideas at 
a given time. Vaschide's observations are very suggestive 
here. 

The authors also lay much stress upon the number of 
cases recorded, saying that while the defects of evidence 
would throw a few out of consideration, the accumulated 
weight of many makes it impossible to treat them thus sum- 
marily. They cannot be disposed of merely by references to 
the general untrustworthiness of human evidence, but must 
be answered in detail. But if we show that in each case 
there is some defect of evidence, surely the evidence is dis- 

362 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

posed of, and the more so if the defects are of a similar 
character in many cases. When, for instance, the authors 
accept with complacency record after record which was 
not made until a year or several or many years after the 
event, one is surely not under any obligation to consider 
the evidence as having any scientific value whatever. 
Where could you find a scientist who would expect his 
brother scientists to believe that he had discovered a new 
natural force on the strength of experiments whose results 
were not written out until a year or more after they were 
made? The notion is preposterous on its very face. And 
yet this is exactly what these investigators expect, and, 
curiously, they seem to believe that their case is made 
stronger by the fact of ' ' their harmony, alike in what they 
do and in what they do not present. ' ' Such harmony does, 
it is true, do away largely, if not altogether, with the hy- 
pothesis of fraud, but has no bearing whatever on the other 
defects, for if this group of phenomena has been created 
by certain general tendencies of the human mind in forget- 
ting, certain common tendencies of belief and interpreta- 
tion, then each case would conform sufficiently to these gen- 
eral tendencies to show its community with the others, and 
would differ just enough to show the sincerity of the nar- 
rator. To put it differently, we are inclined to believe 
with the authors ' ' that the cases recorded bear strong signs 
of belonging to a true natural group," and that the group 
is well worthy of careful study, but we are at present in- 
clined to think that such study would show that these sup- 
posed cases of telepathy are the outcropping of images 
which have developed in a certain type of mind according 
to definite laws of perception, memory, and inference, 
which are now in part known, and which should be stud- 
ied in detail. This type of mind is not properly called the 
hysterical type, though it has perhaps some of those char- 
acteristics; it is closely allied to the mystical type; it has, 
perhaps, tendencies to secondary personality; as we have 

363 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

already said, it has vivid memories and images and emo- 
tions, and a strong tendency therefore to belief in their 
truth-bearing character. 

But it may not be superstitious nor religious in the or- 
dinary sense of those terms; it may, and usually does, be- 
lieve itself to be essentially reasonable and well balanced; 
and in many instances it is so in that its possessors hold 
important positions, and perform their work efficiently and 
often notably well. 

The careful study of this type is still a psychological 
desideratum, not an accomplished fact. 

Our standpoint, therefore, in reading the evidence 
brought forward for telepathy, mediumship, etc., is not so 
much to an interest in the evidence as in the type of mind 
which displays such phenomena. We are desirous of get- 
ting back to the mental laws which have produced them, 
and be they only manifestations of lying, or of other things, 
our interest is about as great in the former case as in the 
latter. Suppose, for instance, it should turn out that Mrs. 
Piper's subliminal self is simply a consummate actor that 
has been coached for twenty-three years in his various parts 
by all the Psychical Researchers, would not the disclosure 
of the details of this coaching and the workings of this 
mind, and its relations to the normal mind of the medium, 
be a thrilling chapter in the science of psychology? Or, 
again, suppose that all the phenomena of veridical appari- 
tions, telepathy, etc., should be referable to the community 
of ideas existing between friends and people of the same 
type of mind, would this not be as valuable a fact as the 
assumption of telepathy? It would not gratify our taste 
for the marvelous, to be sure, but it might help us more 
in life. 

Let us summarise now the cases for all sorts of telep- 
athy at a distance, both spontaneous and experimental, in- 
cluding here also veridical death apparitions and ghosts, 
and see just how large the mass of material is that has 

364 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

been accumulated by the Society for Psychical Research 
since its organisation in 1882 to the present time. 

In all, there are eighty-eight prima facie cases of one 
form or another of telepathy, which were recorded within 
a year of their occurrence. Since these have been collected 
for twenty-eight years, we have an average of three and 
one-seventh cases to a year. This makes the case for such 
forms of telepathy pitifully weak from the numerical stand- 
point alone, but when one comes to consider other defects 
in the evidence, the matter is still worse. 

In the cases of experimental thought-transference at a 
distance, on which the authors themselves lay little stress 
because they are so very few in number, we are told noth- 
ing of the relations between percipient and agent in most 
cases, though in others we know that they were intimate 
friends, and we are led to infer that this was nearly always 
the case. But if it is the case, the wonder is not that there 
were some coincidences in their thought, but that there were 
not more. Even in the case of friends who have been sep- 
arated from one for years, and from whom one seldom 
hears, one has many more flitting thoughts and dreams of 
them than one would credit without taking especial note of 
the matter. When one sees the friend now and then, or if 
the habits of thought are similar, the chances of such coin- 
cidences are indefinitely increased. 

The great trouble with the cases for all sorts of telep- 
athy is that it is almost, if not quite, impossible to collect 
all the negative instances, for that would mean devoting 
most of one's time to writing down the thoughts which 
bring up persons. We cannot even begin to calculate the 
probabilities in the case until we know something more of 
the numbers of negative cases. 

Again, a considerable number of these eighty-eight cases 
were vague, and made no impression upon the percipient 
until she heard later of the coincidence. But if the verid- 
ical coincidences have no mark which shows their nature at 

365 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

the time, does it not raise the question of whether their 
origin is not the same as that of non-veridieal coincidences, 
and the apparent veridical characteristic merely a chance? 
Many things may coincide in time which have no cause- 
and-effect relation. When there is a time coincidence, the 
probability of the relation being one of cause and effect 
increases with the frequency of the coincidence, the lack of 
other explanations, and our ability to trace the passage 
from cause to effect. But all these marks are lacking in 
telepathy. It is highly infrequent, even if we include all 
the cases cited by the Society for Psychical Research, vari- 
ous other explanations are possible, and, most of all, we 
cannot at present form any satisfactory theory as to how 
such thought-transference could take place without the rec- 
ognised channels of sense. 

Here there are at most only three theoretical possibili- 
ties : one person 's brain may in some mysterious way affect 
another person's brain without employing the afferent and 
efferent nerves; one person's mind may somehow affect an- 
other person's mind directly, without either mind using 
the brain or nerves ; one person 's brain may affect another 
person's mind, or vice versa. But all these are purely hypo- 
thetical, and at present the modus operandi for them is in- 
conceivable. Let us consider the objections a little. 

The writers upon this subject make light of the diffi- 
culties in transferring thought from one brain to another 
without using the sense organs. They speak easily of wire- 
less telegraphy as analogous, and of ether waves, etc., as the 
media of transmission, without seeming to realise at all 
the enormous weight of history and experience against such 
an assumption. 

If it is possible for nervous stimuli to pass through 
space in the way they so blithely assume, why has not hu- 
manity developed that mode of communication instead of 
the infinitely more laborious one of speech, writing, and the 
postal service, and telegraphy and the telephone? If, as 

366 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

practically every student to-day believes, bad as present- 
day conditions are, they are still the survival of the best 
and most useful conditions for life, how could it possibly 
happen that such a power as telepathy should not have 
been developed at a rapidly increasing rate ? If it is a gen- 
uine power, it would from the beginning of thought cer- 
tainly have been the strongest factor in enabling its posses- 
sors to survive, for even if it existed in only a rudimentary 
fashion, as a vague feeling of premonition, it would confer 
a tremendous advantage in enabling one to escape danger 
and enemies or to obtain advantages. But, as a matter of 
fact, those who claim to be the possessors of such feelings 
have never been able to depend upon them, and the cases 
where they have used them to advantage are decidedly 
counterbalanced by those when trust in them led to disaster. 
Again, the advocates of telepathy do not seem to appre- 
ciate the difficulty in framing an explanation of how such 
communication could be effected. Within the limits of one 
person's nervous system it is known that stimuli never jump 
across from nerve to nerve, even if the nerves lie contiguous 
to each other, with not so much as one-thousandth of an 
inch between them. Furthermore, communication is pos- 
sible from nerve end to nerve end only when the two ends 
come into contact, and an infinitesimally small withdrawal 
severs all possibilities of communication and cuts those two 
regions of the brain off from one another. Now, if the 
nervous processes within one person's brain are thus nar- 
rowly and exactly conditioned by the contacts between nerve 
ends, if no amount of intensity can free him from the neces- 
sity of these neural contacts, what reason have we to sup- 
pose that these neural waves can beat out through the skull 
into the surrounding ether 1 So far as we know, there is no 
access to the nervous system save through the sense organs, 
and no exit for a stimulus save through some form of mo- 
tor response. If we believed these to be genuine cases of 
telepathy, perhaps we might conceive the percipient to be 

367 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

so hyperaesthetic as really to perceive what was going on 
hundreds or thousands of miles away, but as we have 
already said, there is no real evidence of such cases being 
anything more than chance coincidences; but to assume 
that nervous activity can somehow escape from the 
brain directly, and then imprint itself upon other 
brains, shows a colossal ignoring both of neurology and of 
physics. 

Those who advance such theories refer again and again 
to ether as a universal substance, to the modern theories of 
electrons, whorls, etc. But they ignore the fact of the dif- 
ferences within generalities. Doubtless the human nervous 
system does contain ether, just as all space is supposed to 
be filled with it, but these theorists should take note that 
the general concept of ether does no work. Light, for in- 
stance, is transmitted by waves of certain definite ranges 
in length and under certain definite conditions; electricity 
has another series of waves and conditions; heat, still an- 
other ; sound, still another ; and no sane person attempts to 
get light by supplying merely heat conditions, and he ap- 
preciates the fact that when he increases the heat vibrations 
sufficiently to get light he no longer has the same heat as 
before, but a different heat. 

The arrangement of the ultimate particles, whatever 
they may be, which will transmit light is a specific one, 
so that that arrangement will not transmit most forms of 
heat; each form of electricity can be transmitted only by 
a specific arrangement of the electrons; and so on. Un- 
doubtedly the same thing holds everywhere. Nervous stim- 
uli can only be transmitted under certain definite condi- 
tions which ultimately demand certain forms of arrange- 
ment of the electrons, and these are different from and far 
more complex than those necessary for the transmission 
of light, heat, etc. Before a nervous stimulus could jump 
out into space from the brain and take any other form of 
ether, it would have to be so disintegrated that it would no 

368 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

longer be a nervous stimulus, but something totally dif- 
ferent and unrecognisable. 

Again, take the notion that mind can affect mind di- 
rectly, without either mind employing the brain and body. 
Mr. Balfour * says that this is to him far more believable 
than the last form of the telepathic theory, because he can- 
not conceive how one brain could thus affect another. This 
remark shows how natural it is for the human mind to 
assume that unknown regions are always full of marvels 
and miracles. We do know enough about physics and 
the nervous system to realise the absurdity of one brain 
affecting another without sense organs, but we know noth- 
ing of mind per se, and so can, strictly speaking, assert 
nothing of it. 

Let us emphasise this point a little. No one, not even 
the most ardent Spiritist, has ever seen any psychical mani- 
festation of any sort in such a way that he can assert that 
his own brain and nervous system, at least, were not in- 
volved in apprehending it, and the further psychology 
pushes observation and experiment the more confidently it 
makes the assertion that, for this life at least, mind and 
brain never work separately. So much is not a question of 
speculation, but of carefully tested observation on which 
practically all modern psychologists are agreed. 

In some other life minds may be free from brains, and 
telepathy may then be the common form of communication, 
but that life, we are told, is one that " eye hath not seen 
nor ear heard, nor the tongue of man been able to declare, ' ' 
which means that we are totally ignorant of its nature now. 

The third form of telepathy, therefore, becomes equally 
unintelligible, because we cannot conceive what this pure 
mind is which acts upon brain, and also because we cannot, 
in the last analysis, believe that any substance or force can 

i Hon. Gerald Balfour, Hibbert Journal, April, 1910, " Psychical 
Research and Current Doctrines of Mind and Body." 

369 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

act upon one of a totally different nature. Cause and effect, 
that is, must ultimately be reducible to a common de- 
nominator. 

Recognition of these difficulties has led some Spiritists, 
notably Hyslop, to work out in considerable detail theories 
of the future life and the soul that make both ultimately 
material in nature. 

But to suppose, as some of these writers imply, that 
either thoughts or nervous stimuli are floating about in 
space is a crude notion that at its best belongs to the earli- 
est days of philosophical speculation. As we are seeing in 
the recent writings of some Psychical Researchers, such an 
attitude ends in the belief in the actual, literal existence of 
all grades of disembodied psychical existences, from the 
most rudimentary and malevolent up. According to it 
demonology is truer than science and evolution; and the- 
urgy and magic are preferable to experiment and adher- 
ence to fact. 

Surely any assumption which is thus at variance with 
our fundamental ideas of matter and of life demands, to 
justify belief in it, unexplained facts in far larger num- 
bers than have yet been supplied, and far more carefully 
obtained. 

We have already noted that experiments on the num- 
ber and letter habits showed that many of the early ex- 
periments in thought-transference could be explained by 
reference to these habits. In other cases, it was found that 
the percipient was hyperaesthetic or that the agent gave 
involuntary signs which the percipient's subconsciousness 
interpreted. 

We are still lacking, however, sufficient study to show 
the communities of thought between persons, though 
Vaschide has made an excellent beginning along this line. 
If the Psychical Researchers would set their percipients 
and agents to work to note as many as possible of their 
thoughts at certain times of the day, and especially to trac- 

370 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

ing the origin of those thoughts, we should get most valu- 
able material as to the effect of milieu. This Vaschide 
did to some extent, and publishes the results in his article 
on " Les Hallucinations Telepathiques. " (Paris, 1908, 
97 pp.) 

He thinks that we are extending the limits of our knowl- 
edge, and cites the English studies of apparitions, and also 
those of Marillier, begun in 1892, which seem to show that 
people in important crises of their lives or at death tend to 
appear to their friends. Poincare has pointed out the weak- 
ness of the calculus of probabilities. Vaschide investigated 
twenty-one subjects, noting sex, age, education, the num- 
ber of determinations, the subject's faith, the number of 
true and false items, and the senses involved. Out of 1,011 
determinations, 5.47 per cent seemed true. In another test 
with thirteen people, 4.36 per cent were true. 

The coincidences he thinks explicable on psychological 
grounds. Most of his French subjects were intimate 
friends, and he was engaged for nine years upon these 
studies. He was often able to get correct impressions of 
what was transpiring in their minds during walks, at work 
in the laboratory, etc. He does not agree with Gurney and 
Podmore that ideational centres strongly tend to project 
their images into the visual field ; but thinks that the pre- 
dominance of visual cases is due to the fact that most of 
his subjects are visualisers. Education gives very great im- 
munity against telepathy, which goes with sentimentality 
and credulity. A believer is usually a good subject, far 
better than reasoner. A vivid imagination is a great 
help. Peasants and religious people are especially prone 
to believe in telepathy. He tabulates his results, based, 
however, only on fifty subjects, as follows : of ignorant peas- 
ants, ninety per cent believe; the clergy and those whose 
instruction is mostly religious, 98.1 per cent; the clergy 
with better instruction, sixty-eight per cent; educated 
workmen, 25.3 per cent; university men, publicists, and 

371 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

authors, 9.5 per cent. To be keenly sensible to telepathy- 
one must have led a rather vivid life with considerable ex- 
perience, and a good stock of memories and pains, with last- 
ing relations and long friendships, which are not so com- 
mon to the young. 

The great criticism of the English inquest is, he thinks, 
the extreme confidence which the authors have in strangers, 
repeating tediously their own words. His conclusion is 
that there is much intellectual community between two sub- 
jects where telepathic hallucination is possible. There must 
be intimacy, love, sympathy ; and, second, the object of the 
hallucination very often appears in a moribund state or in 
great pain. 

Our psychic apparatus is vastly more complex, says 
Vaschide, than we realise. The notion of the voyage of a 
soul, death, coma, or dreams, is widespread, and there are 
many polarisations. Time makes ravages with details, the 
general belief in the miraculous helps, and in crises the 
mind is disorientated, muddled, arrested, and so cannot re- 
member exactly. It is hard to reproduce reveries and in- 
tense experiences, so that memory is very often profoundly 
mistaken, and lies are mixed with truth. There is " a cer- 
tain desire to accentuate a particular experience or belief, 
which is part of our amour propre, ' ' and this helps occult- 
ism and the romantic factor of dreams. 

The social milieu is determined, and may make a psychic 
epidemic. Vaschide thinks that in 97 out of 100 of his 
experiments the social milieu was the principal factor of 
the telepathic hallucination. Flammarion issued a ques- 
tionnaire in his journal, asking whether the person had ever 
experienced a distinct impression of having seen a human 
being or having been touched by one without being able to 
refer this impression to an external cause. To this he re- 
ceived 4,280 replies, of which 1,421 were affirmative; but 
his question was very suggestive, and some of the cases re- 
ported were rumours and old, etc. Richet and Bechterew 

372 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

long ago concluded that there are probably no veridical 
hallucinations. 

In fine, there is a mine of intellectual, pre-established 
harmony or psychic parallelism or intellectual mimetism 
amounting almost to an ankylosis of mind. Our subcon- 
scious systematisations are often more alike than we know. 

Again, to show the unreliability of memory, Vaschide 
kept the most careful account of the visions as given by the 
subjects at the time, of the coincidences which they later 
asserted between the vision and the fact, and of the actual 
coincidences. In experimenting thus with 13 subjects, he 
found that out of 344 coincidences, which the subjects be- 
lieved existed between the vision and the fact, only 8 really 
did exist, i. e., the subjects were wrong in 336 cases. With 
21 other subjects, out of 981 asserted coincidences only 40 
were correct, and 941 were wrong. Of all these supposed 
coincidences the 48 true ones occurred in less than sixty 
hours of the real event, that is, with 34 subjects he obtained 
48 ' ' veridical hallucinations, ' ' a much larger percentage 
than the Psychical Researchers obtained, and in all these 
cases knowing his subjects and their milieu well, he is able 
to show just how the vision originated. He also shows the 
implicit faith which members of the subject's own family 
often give to it, even where the memory is entirely wrong, 
and he emphasises the fact that when the person who had 
the vision questions the one who was seen in the vision as 
to whether at that time she was in distress, was thinking of 
the subject, etc., a false memory is frequently built up so 
that an agreement is reached even when there are no actual 
facts on which to agree. 

One closes this pamphlet, with its sane and temperate 
criticisms of the Psychical Research Society, with the great- 
est regret that M. Vaschide '& death has prevented the de- 
tailed publication of his cases, for such a study shows the 
utterly unscientific character of the Society 's data as noth- 
ing else can. 

373 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

As unintentionally confirmatory of Vaschide's opinion 
that intimacy lies at the basis of all so-called veridical hal- 
lucinations, we may give the following summary of the 
cases in Phantasms of the Living: 

There are 702 numbered cases of phantasms, each case 
representing at least one different agent and percipient; 
63 + per cent of the agents are males, perhaps because 
men are more liable than women to accident and death, and 
more die at a distance. Adding instances that came in 
later, and on a basis of 830 cases, the agent stood to the per- 
cipient in the relation of : 



Friend in 263 


cases 


= 31.7 


per cent 


Parent or child 


' 193 


a 


= 23.3 


a n 


Brother or sister 


' 122 


i i 


= 14.7 


a a 


Acquaintance 


' 89 


i i 


= 10.7 


a a 


Cousin, uncle, etc. ' 


' 75 


i i 


= 9.0 


a (( 


Husband or wife 


1 52 


1 1 


= 6.3 


a a 


Stranger 


1 36 


a 


= 4.3 


<< a 



In forty-seven per cent of the cases there is blood rela- 
tionship, and relatives often belong to the circle of intimate 
friends, and yet the authors conclude that ' ' consanguinity, 
as such, has little, if any, predisposing influence in the 
transmission of telepathic impressions." They also hold 
that the inf requency of transmissions between husband and 
wife " is probably due to the fact that it is commoner for 
married persons than for blood relations to be together, 
when one of the two dies. ' ' Of these cases fifteen are col- 
lective, in which some intimate friend of the agent was one 
of the co-percipients, and was perhaps the " link between 
the agent and the stranger percipient." 

If we add to the 47 per cent of cases between relatives, 
31.7 per cent more between friends it would seem that the 
argument for community of thought rather than for telep- 
athy is rather strong. 

374 



A CENSUS OF HALLUCINATIONS 

All in all, then, is the assumption of practically all of 
the Psychical Researchers that telepathy is a " proved 
fact," whatever its explanation may be, justified? Grant- 
ing that many of their cases are not published in the Pro- 
ceedings, it is still true that the best are, and if the char- 
acter of the evidence is so faulty in these, it must be still 
weaker in the rest. Furthermore, even if the observations 
were made at the time instead of being in nearly all cases 
dependent upon the memory of days, weeks, or years, we 
still have the difficult question, which psychology has 
scarcely begun to answer, of how much community of 
thought exists as the result of a common environment, edu- 
cation, temperament, etc. Until we have had more careful 
studies of this latter point, even many cases of so-called 
telepathy would not demonstrate telepathy. 

We do not realise at all adequately the great store of 
thoughts common even to all people living in the same cen- 
tury, and much more to those of the same race, nation, city, 
circle of acquaintances, and family, especially if to this are 
added similarity of education and tastes. All of us are far 
more social in our thoughts and feelings, and far less in- 
dividual than we think we are. 

Again, we have not even begun to realise the great 
amount of inferring and systematising about slight indica- 
tions, unattended-to facts, emotional factors, etc., which is 
constantly going on in the outskirts of our minds or even 
below the level of consciousness, and which may suddenly 
impulsively push into the centre of attention with all the 
vividness and completeness of a " veridical hallucination. ' ' 
Practically no one, except a person with an unusual power 
of self -analysis, is competent in such cases to trace out the 
factors in the vision for himself, but with the new methods 
of psycho-analysis now at hand we may be able to do this in 
the near future, and it is my firm conviction that, just in 
proportion as it is done, ' ' veridical hallucinations ' ' and all 
kinds of telepathy will be reduced to the natural coinci- 

375 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

dences existing between normal minds under our highly 
complex social conditions. Telepathy and spirit communi- 
cation are simply convenient terms by which to name our 
ignorance of certain regions of the psyche. Those regions 
are in themselves no more and no less mysterious than rea- 
soning and perception. But they are unknown, and so, like 
ancient geographers, many students of the mind in draw- 
ing their map of it, instead of simply printing soberly over 
those regions terrce incognitce, have drawn in monsters, de- 
mons, genii, angels, and God himself, 1 as if there could be 
no God save the unknown God to whom the superstitious 
Athenians erected their altar. 

Rather we should have the practical faith of Columbus 
that we shall not fall off the earth into infinite space no 
matter how far we sail, and that, however far we go, men 's 
minds and men's hands will serve us in those unknown 
lands and against those unknown foes as well as they have 
in the past. 

1 Cf. James, " The Varieties of Religious Experience," in which 
he suggests that the subconscious mind is the avenue by which we 
approach God. 



CHAPTER XXII 
CONCLUSION 

Before closing this discussion we should consider at 
least briefly the motives which give the impetus to such be- 
liefs as Spiritism and telepathy, and their effects upon the 
mental attitude and life of those who believe them. 

In the discussion of Spiritism we hear a great deal about 
adopting the simpler hypothesis, the implication being that 
spirit communication is a simpler hypothesis than the nat- 
uralistic interpretation. 

To this it may first be said that our idea of what simplic- 
ity is depends wholly upon our general state of culture. To 
the savage and to many uneducated people it seems simpler 
to believe that the sun rises and sets than that the earth 
moves about it. To children it seems simpler to say that 
the rolling of barrels in heaven is the cause of thunder 
than laboriously to trace out its relations to electricity. To 
the untrained mind it seems simpler to assume that God 
created life or even man directly, than to attempt to re- 
produce in thought the highly complex conditions under 
which the simplest life-forms must have shaped themselves. 
Similarly, to very many minds to-day it seems far simpler 
to assume spirit communication than to study the manifold 
hereditary and social relations, the conditions of nerve cells 
and sense organs which explain not only the test messages 
obtained through mediums, but also the nonsense. True sci- 
entific simplicity is not the result of simple thought proc- 
esses, but of the most persistent labour, and it is attained 
in proportion as many facts can be explained by one law. 
Therefore, the scientific presumption is against such the- 
27 377 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

ories as spirit communication and telepathy, which not only- 
demand the rejection of what we already know about ner- 
vous action, but the assumption of some unknown force 
whose conditions are always identical either with those nec- 
essary for deception and sleight of hand, or else are those 
under which we are in partial ignorance of all that was 
said or done. That is to say, the present presumption is 
that just in proportion as the conditions leading up to a 
test message are known and the characteristics of the sit- 
ter and medium are fully described, we shall find the mys- 
terious nature of the messages dissolving into thin air. 
When even so ardent an advocate of spirit communication 
as Hyslop is forced to assume, in order to explain the in- 
coherences in his sittings, that the departed spirit is in a 
state of trance or of partial suffocation or of dream, and 
that his ravings are caught by the controlling spirit, Rec- 
tor, who then affects the hand of the entranced medium, 
which then writes imperfectly the imperfectly heard and 
imperfectly spoken message, we get a realising sense of how 
little the theory of spirit communication has in it of real 
law and order. Not one of these assumptions will ever be 
capable of proof, while, from our standpoint, nearly all of 
the content of the published sittings is explicable on the 
theory of secondary personality, and the unexplained re- 
mainder cannot now be explained only because the sittings 
were too imperfectly reported. 

But science is new and faith is ancient. The roots of 
these beliefs are very old, and, because they are, they can- 
not be considered unimportant. Premonitions, warnings, 
and spirit communications have always played a part in 
history and religion. 

The progress of thought, however, has always been 
marked by the fact that it gives new meanings to ancient 
instincts and new interpretations to common facts. Be- 
cause the child and the savage of to-day at some time in 
their development are peculiarly interested by the reflec- 

378 



CONCLUSION 

tion in a mirror, and look upon it as a solid object or as 
another real self, we do not conclude that the reflection is 
solid and alive. We know how it is made and the insuffi- 
cient data from which the child and savage reason. 

It is my belief that Spiritism and telepathy will soon 
be shown to be parallel cases. Thoughts have always been 
mysterious things to men, especially when they rise spon- 
taneously and vividly, as in hallucinations and dreams, 
seeming to be independent of our own volition and to pos- 
sess a life and will of their own. As long as their origin 
is not known, as long as they are not under the control 
either of the person in whose mind they appear or of the 
physician or psychologist, it is inevitable that many people 
shall consider them of supernatural origin and meaning. 

But one by one we are controlling conditions. We no 
longer consider hystericals witches, and that is a solid gain. 
Many secondary personalities have been reunited, and many 
other incipient ones have been prevented from dividing, 
and, with increasing familiarity, such phenomena will be 
recognised as not opening the door to another world but 
rather to the insane asylum. 1 

Thought coincidences will not always be considered 
ominous and premonitory, but will be properly placed in 
their setting of complex associations, and instead of exalt- 
ing the mysterious as supernatural and wonderful in pro- 
portion as it breaks away from law and order, we shall bow 
ever more reverently before the truly infinite and mys- 
terious — man's soul and body in their marvelously com- 
plex relations to each other and to others of their own 
kind. 

An appreciation of the wonderful complexity and deli- 
cacy of our psychical processes as well as of the neural 
ones underlying them, is the most important net gain re- 

i Marcel Viollet, " Le Spiritisme dans ses Rapports avec la Folie," 
Paris, 1909, pp. 121. 

379 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

suiting from all these studies in Psychical Research. As 
yet we stand literally only at the locked door to this new 
world, but we are learning the combination, manifold 
though it is. From this point of view, the nervous system 
— especially the brain — is the storehouse of all the experi- 
ences both of the individual and the race. How well it is 
fitted for this we can realise when we recall that at a mod- 
erate estimate the brain contains 3,000 million separate 
neurons, 1 each of which has an axis cylinder and 40 or 
less dendrites with their numerous gemmules to connect it 
with other neurons. Changes within the neuron or the bed 
of nervous material in which it lies make or break its con- 
nections with other neurons, and with such an inconceivably 
large number of them the possibilities of combination are 
larger still. 

Not only are these infinite combinations possible, but 
nerve cells are especially qualified to be the bearers of 
memory. In the history of life they have developed from 
the skin or outer surface of the living organism, which 
alone comes directly into contact with the external world, 
and by degrees the other parts of the body have surren- 
dered to the nerves all their functions of feeling and re- 
sponding to stimuli, so that now if we take out the nerves 
from any part of the body that part lies senseless and 
motionless. The nerves, then, are far and away the most 
impressionable and plastic of all parts of the body, and 
at the same time they retain for ever the changes produced 
in them. How this is done we do not know, but the traces 
thus left are called engrams, and it is supposed that en- 
grams exist for every experience through which any one 
has ever gone. Some even push the traces further back and 
say that all the great racial experiences likewise persist in 
the individual, and appear in us not only as the explana- 

i Cf . M. Verworn, " Allgemeine Physiologie," and M. Kassowitz, 
" Nerven unci Seele." 

380 



CONCLUSION 

tion of instinctive acts and feelings — which every one 
admits are racial — but also as the cause of innumerable 
flitting thoughts and impulses, dreams, abnormal tenden- 
cies, etc. 

Without irreverence this wonderful creation of the 
great Spirit of Life may be compared to the New Jerusa- 
lem with its many mansions, and its beauties which eye 
hath not seen nor ear heard nor the tongue of man been 
able to declare. It reveals glimpses of possibilities in de- 
velopment that will place man as far beyond his present 
state as he now is beyond the simplest protozoan. It opens 
to the most abnormal and degenerate the door of hope, 
because, however bad his immediate heredity may be or 
his circumstances, the very fact that he is here at all re- 
veals that he is the child of God, and an inheritor of the 
kingdom of Heaven and that — as the revivalists are always 
telling us — he need only knock at the door and it will be 
opened to him, or — as some are putting it now — he can 
draw at any time upon the store of infinite energy that is 
stored up within every man. This conception of man makes 
all these things literally true. The amount of chemical 
energy stored up within the brain is beyond calculation. It 
staggers figures. Even the most hard-working genius does 
not one-millionth part of what his brain is capable of doing, 
because there is friction, loss of connections, etc. Parts of 
it are left unused and other parts try to run establishments 
of their own, and so we get nerve strain, multiple person- 
alities, and abnormalities. But if only we knew the way, 
we could knit together these warring factions and have an 
army against which nature and sin and disease and death 
itself could not stand. 

Here lies the true mystery of the world, the true 
riddle of the Sphinx. Here will be the next great con- 
quest over nature, the next victory over the powers of evil 
and superstition. 

But though the mysterious nature of thought has always 
381 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

favoured belief in its supernatural nature and in such 
things as Spiritism and telepathy, they have been still more 
aided by the personal stake that every man has in the game. 
G. Stanley Hall has said that perhaps the most momentous 
epoch in man's psychical development came when, for the 
first time, he realised that he must die. Then there must 
have ensued a period of great fear and anguish, and then 
imagination and reason, aided by faith, began the great 
work of speculation as to the course of events after death 
had done its worst. From the primitive belief that the 
dead man's existence is proved because he appears in a 
dream to the pragmatic belief of a Kant is a long road, 
but each step has been motivated by the same will-to-live, 
which shapes itself in multifarious forms. No one can con- 
template with composure the certain prospect that some 
day he will be snuffed out into the darkness like a candle, 
and so deep is our horror of such a fate that, if we believed 
it to be certain, we should convict the universe and its 
Maker of the grossest injustice. We must believe that our 
individual attainments and strivings and personality have 
a permanent place in the universe or we should have not 
the heart to continue striving. 

And right here lies the kernel of all our belief in im- 
mortality. The person who is most concerned about the 
future life is not the one who has always been prosperous 
and successful, with means and children and fame to sat- 
isfy his natural desire to be of worth and value. It is 
always the one who has had brought home to him forcibly 
and painfully the limitations of his present self and life, 
and it is at the time that such limitations are the most 
felt that the belief in immortality grows strongest, both 
in the individual and in a given generation. Probably 
there never was a time in the history of mankind when the 
other world was so close to man as in the Dark and Middle 
Ages in Europe, during and after the great migrations. 
Not only was no man sure of his own property, family, or 

382 



CONCLUSION 

life, but the end of the world was expected every year, and 
almost every month. Then it became of fundamental im- 
portance to men to obtain knowledge of the life to come, 
while this life sank into insignificance. So we find not only 
elaborate beliefs worked out by the Church, of hierarchies 
of angels, saints, pope, and priests, through whose medi- 
ation the sinful soul makes its peace with God, but also a 
luxuriant growth of beliefs in demons and in magic, in 
ineantations and witchcraft. On the other side was an 
equally great neglect of this life. The purest blood and the 
greatest minds of Christendom for the most part were ster- 
ile in monasteries and nunneries, while the common people 
died in swarms through ignorance of how to prevent star- 
vation and epidemics. While a few master minds like 
Charlemagne, in statecraft, and Roger Bacon, in science, 
devoted themselves to bringing order out of the chaos in 
society and thought, most men were overwhelmed by the 
existent disorder, and, hopeless of overcoming it, convinced 
of their powerlessness to remove it, took refuge in dreams 
of a perfect life beyond the grave. 

The unprecedented spread of Spiritism in this country 
and England since 1848 doubtless has its roots in the same 
motives. Here on the one side we have profound changes 
in daily living and man's relations to Nature, and, on the 
other, a Protestant Church indescribably dogmatic. Never 
since history began has there been an era so full of great 
inventions, which revolutionised not only the life of every 
individual man but his relations to other men, profoundly 
altering the very structure of society. It has been said that 
our Republic could never have remained a fact had not 
the railroad come into existence, and the possibilities cre- 
ated by the railroad were still further enlarged by the 
steamboat, telegraph, and telephone. The great inventions 
in machinery, such as the sewing-machine, the modern 
printing-press, and agricultural machinery, the invention 
of the kerosene lamp, and the later use of gas and electric- 

383 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

ity — these and many others opened such vistas before the 
imagination of men that he was narrow and hide-bound 
who dared to say that anything was impossible. 

In the scientific world we will refer only to three great 
hypotheses which transformed nature for man: Laplace's 
nebular hypothesis, the systematic arrangement of the geo- 
logical records to show the continuous development of 
life, and the theory of evolution. Minds which had once 
grasped these and gained the illuminating conception of 
the complete continuity of the universe from primeval 
chaos to the present time, and from the simplest life to 
man, could never return to the provincial religious view 
of man. 

But coincident with this wonderful advance in scientific 
theory and in daily living, we find a Protestant Church 
which, after the Reformation, had settled into a dogmatism 
quite as narrow as that against which it had protested. 
Many of the clergy condemned even inventions like the 
steam-engine and the telegraph, while practically the whole 
church rose up unanimously against all forms of the evo- 
lutionary theory. The conflict thus precipitated between 
science and religion led to probably more speculation and 
reshaping of religious ideas than at any time since the days 
of Luther and Melanchthon. But at this modern time no 
great leaders like them arose to keep the people out of the 
mire. In our country culture was at its lowest ebb, the 
clergy, who should have guided the people aright, alienated 
them by their severe doctrines and lack of sympathy with 
the great trend of events, and so these alienated ones, un- 
trained in thought, and yet realising the empty bottles of 
the old doctrines, wandered everywhere in search of spir- 
itual food. The closing decades of the nineteenth century 
witnessed the amazing spectacle of unprecedented advances 
in invention and science going on simultaneously with the 
spread of gross superstitions such as Mormonism, occultism 
in various forms, theosophy, Dowieism, Christian Science, 

384 



CONCLUSION 

and Spiritism. Other doubters took refuge from the chaos 
resulting from breaking up their old religious beliefs and 
views of nature in unquestioning faith and submission to 
external authority, tending especially to join the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

If we add to these general considerations more particu- 
lar ones which frequently are present, we get a still more 
complete explanation of the influence of Spiritism. Do not 
persons turn to Spiritism when they find the present life 
too overpowering? There may be many causes of this. 
One of the most common is the loss of some beloved one 
on whom there has always been dependence not only for 
material support, but for comfort and encouragement. 
Another cause is some sort of failure which makes the per- 
son question his own worth. Or, again, the loss of 
confidence in one's religious beliefs, especially if the 
pastor to whom the person turns for help cannot give 
help, may be the cause. Or, again, merely prolonged ill 
health with the sense of inefficiency accompanying it may 
be a cause. 

In all such cases and any others where the person feels 
himself unable to cope with life, and where he has a re- 
ligious nature, he may turn to the medium or fortune-teller 
for aid. Originally, he may not have any well-defined be- 
lief in them, but he must have help and comfort, and thinks 
that at least no harm can come from consultation, while 
some good may. Going in this depressed state of mind, 
with the critical powers more or less in abeyance, and with 
the need of comfort and help the most prominent thing, 
the chances are good that the medium can establish a sym- 
pathetic relation, and that she may make statements which 
will assume deep meaning to the sitter. 

It would be well worth while to issue a questionnaire 
on the conditions under which mediums and fortune-tellers 
are first sought, and why they were later dropped or con- 
tinued. 

385 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

But the vicious outcome of this particular form of other- 
worldliness consists in this, that the person who takes ref- 
uge in Spiritism from life is not healed and made strong, 
and sent back with fresh courage, but is made more and 
more dependent upon the medium. Instead of being made 
to realise the beauty and value of the present life and its 
ties, he is taught to yearn for those who are irrevocably 
dead and gone. He is brought back again and again for 
business advice, for health diagnoses, and for any pretext 
that will secure more sittings. Instead of having his re- 
ligious faith broadened and developed, his sense of law 
heightened, and his whole nature deepened by large and 
ennobling conceptions, he is given grotesque, belittling, and 
useless ideas of all things spiritual. His ideas of law and 
order are hopelessly broken up, and his moral and intel- 
lectual world- view becomes very similar to that of the Dark 
Ages. Instead of getting inspiration from the great lead- 
ers of the world, men like Plato, Newton, Darwin, Kant, 
Luther, St. Francis, and Christ, these poor souls seek it 
in the trance utterances of an uneducated and usually 
common-minded, if not vulgar-minded, medium. Instead 
of being led into the fight for personal and social righteous- 
ness by devoted leaders of their own time, they are poring 
over the scrawls of an automatic hand. To the serious- 
minded person nothing could well be more appalling than 
the sort of book recently published by Miss Anne M. Bob- 
bins, entitled " Both Sides of the Veil." Feeling, in the 
first place, the need of justifying her own sanity to her 
readers, she carefully explains who she is and the positions 
of trust that she has held, and then gives, with the most 
pathetic faith in their inspiring power, the account of her 
sittings with Mrs. Piper, in which her dead employer was 
the controlling spirit. Indeed, the implication is that he 
was co-author with her, and that, therefore, the work must 
be almost sacred. Specimens of his most moving utterances 
are given in order to show that it is not just to criticise 

386 



CONCLUSION 

Spiritism as dealing only with trivial things. But if these 
are typical inspirations, what must the average be? Such 
banalities, such bathos would disgrace the pulpit of the 
most commonplace backwoods preacher. As one closes the 
book one cannot but ask one's self in amazement and pity, 
what must have been the surroundings and training of a 
person who can find in this sort of thing the highest to 
which she has yet attained? What a starved, darkened, 
lonely, and uninspired life must have been hers ! And yet 
she was living in Boston and coming into external contact, 
at least to some degree, with men in public affairs. How 
came it about that she was thus marooned spiritually? 
Where is the fault? What is the essential lack in our 
life to-day that Spiritism can make such an appeal as 
it does? 

Nobody knows just how many Spiritists there are in 
this country, but they are conservatively estimated at about 
a million. Such a number challenges respect merely as a 
number. It shows that these million souls find something 
satisfying in this faith, which nothing else in their sur- 
roundings gives. Where the case is so complex as here, 
one offers theories with humility, and so I will put mine 
in the form of a question. Is it not possible that the Prot- 
estant Church is failing to satisfy the personal and mys- 
tical religious sides of our nature ? Is it not too intellectual 
and aesthetic and practical ? One would not depreciate but 
would enlarge the work now so well begun along the lines 
of the institutional church, the beautifying of the service 
and the building, and the steady advance toward less 
dogma. But one cannot escape the feeling that in doing 
these things, others are being left undone. More than upon 
anything else the religious nature feeds upon wonder and 
faith, and needs an abiding sense of a vital relationship 
with an immanent Divine Presence. This is essentially mys- 
tical — whatever that may mean — and the means of attain- 
ing it should be given the most careful study. Any service 

387 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

which does not contain some element that brings this sense 
of uplift and communion to the worshipper is a failure so 
far as he is concerned. 

Again, do not many modern pastors shrink from the 
pastoral part of their work ? In almost every family there 
comes at some time a crisis in which no other member of the 
family can well be consulted, and yet the person most con- 
cerned — husband, wife, or child — sadly needs advice. What 
is to be done ? We may think that the best thing is for him 
to keep family troubles to himself, but, practically, few 
people are able to do that. They want sympathy or advice 
or both. Usually the case is a delicate one. Surely in 
such cases the best person to talk to would be a " man of 
God," who would treat the appeal as if it were given in 
the confessional. But, far from doing this, many a pastor 
will not take the responsibility for giving advice, and does 
not allow such appeals. But to whom else can people go? 
They do go to the medium and give themselves into her 
power, or their trouble becomes common talk because they 
have confided in some unwise person, or they grow bitter 
and isolated, while if the minister could but rise to the occa- 
sion and dare to take the responsibility he might save the 
happiness of the family. 

In order to deprive Spiritism of its present influence, 
then — as well as various other modern superstitions — it is 
not sufficient to discredit it intellectually. No faith dies 
because it is unreasonable, but only because the instincts 
which it has satisfied find more complete and permanent 
gratification in other directions. Belief in spirit communi- 
cation flourishes to-day, and mediums wax and grow fat, (1) 
because large numbers of persons have no one to whom they 
can confide their secrets and sins, to whom they can go 
confidently for comfort and encouragement; (2) because 
many people have to-day no adequate object — religious, sci- 
entific, or artistic — on which to expend love, reverence, and 
worship. These deep and basal emotions therefore mani- 

388 



CONCLUSION 

fest themselves in many abnormal ways, of which this is 
only one. But in proportion as man draws near to his 
fellow-man, and in proportion as he works for and with 
him, he realises that the " other side " can wait till the 
morrow, while salvation is here and now. 



APPENDIX 



Coming to hand too late to be inserted in the body of the 
book, are the latest published experiments with Mrs. Piper, 
which appeared in Proceedings, Vol. XXIV, March, 1910. 
Here also are given some additional cross-correspondences from 
Mrs. Holland, and further remarks and elucidations of the 
previous cross-correspondences. 

In the Piper experiments, the control is usually Myers, 
and the content of the sittings is chiefly concerned with 
classical allusions, some of which are attempted translations 
of Latin and others cross-correspondences. 

Of the cross-correspondences both with Mrs. Piper and 
Mrs. Holland, I will give no new examples, as neither the 
type nor method of interpretation is different from those al- 
ready given. In the most complex one, " Sevens," in which 
six automatists and Mr. Piddington are supposed to be in- 
volved, the twenty-five dates on which references occurred ran 
from July 13, 1904, to January 27, 1909, and, the chief idea 
being the number seven, the reader can judge how far such 
a reference necessitates the assumption of a spirit to give it. 

With regard to the classical allusions and attempts at 
translation of familiar Latin phrases such as " arma virumque 
cano" the whole plausibility of the theory that Myers is 
communicating rests upon the assumption that Mrs. Piper is 
absolutely ignorant of Latin and of these allusions. Mr. Pid- 
dington has made out a good case for his belief that the 
group of allusions is of such a character that it probably was 
recalled by some one with a knowledge of Ovid's " Meta- 
morphoses," Books X and XI, for all the allusions are found 
there, although there are others in the Ovid not given in the 
sittings. Granting this assumption, we have then the ques- 

390 



APPENDIX 

tion of whether Mrs. Piper could have a knowledge of this 
part of Ovid. 

To discover whether she had such knowledge, Mr. Dorr 
first questioned her as to whether the names, " Morpheus," 
" Cave of Sleep," " Iris," " Ovid," etc., had any meaning to 
her, receiving in every case a profession of complete ignorance. 
On another occasion, apparently after this conversation, Mr. 
Dorr examined all the books in Mrs. Piper's apartment, but 
found none bearing upon myth or the classics, and he is, 
besides, certain that she has no classical knowledge " from 
the improbability of it — a point which I can better appreciate, 
as an American, than you in England. People do not read 
these things out here." 

This, Mr. Piddington believes, absolutely disposes of the 
possibility of Mrs. Piper knowing these things, although he 
knows that Bulfinch's " Age of Fable " and Gayley's " Classical 
Myths," with the former of which one of Mrs. Piper's daugh- 
ters admitted being familiar, contain the most essential parts 
of the references in question. He does not seem to con- 
sider it possible that while the daughter was referring to this 
book in the course of her school training, she might have 
talked over the myths at home, and the information so ob- 
tained have sunk below the level of Mrs. Piper's conscious 
memory. Neither does he consider what to me seems the more 
likely theory, which Mrs. Verrall (p. 43) refers to thus: 
" But it is not safe to assume that no trace of what has been 
said to the trance-personalities reaches Mrs. Piper's normal 
mind, and a vague recollection might suffice to draw her at- 
tention to a particular subject, and so focus her recollections 
or increase her information before the next sitting. The 
longer the interval between the first question and the final 
answer, the more chance there is of hints being obtained 
from Mr. Dorr's manner." This interval was usually days, 
and frequently weeks, and when we add to the possibility 
of vague memories persisting from the trance to the normal, 
the other one of ideas given in the trance suddenly popping 
up or breaking into the normal waking state as if spontane- 
ous, attracting Mrs. Piper's attention, and leading to reflect- 
ing on them, if not to looking up the words so appearing, 

391 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

we have, it seems to me, as plausible an explanation of the 
source of the content of the sittings as the theory of de- 
parted spirits. 

Again, the method, followed here and in various other 
reports, of giving only the supposedly significant portions of 
the sitting, tends to give the reader a wrong impression of 
the proportion of significant incidents to mistakes and non- 
sense, and in some instances it also results in the omission 
of portions which, to the psychologist, are important as giv- 
ing a natural explanation of some allusions. At the time 
these sittings were going on, Mr. Dorr was kind enough to 
allow Dr. Hall and myself to see the notes, and I made rather 
full notes and comments on them. My notes on the " Discus " 
incident (pp. 106-113) run thus: "Here again we see plainly 
the working of suggestion both on the positive and negative 
sides. At first Mr. Dorr tells the control that there is a 
legend connected with the words, i Discus hit me,' and the 
control tries to connect this with Marathon, until Mr. Dorr 
indicates by the words, ' By wrestling you mean struggle/ that 
Marathon was connected with a battlefield. 

" The first reference to the flower coming from a drop of 
blood may also have been suggested by the struggle which the 
control was having just at this time to work out the story of 
Perseus carrying Medusa's head, dripping blood, and refer- 
ence had already been made to the legend that Pegasus sprang 
from its blood. The reference to a flower springing also 
from blood might thus have come up as a vague memory, 
evidently very vague, however, for when this utterance was 
brought up at the next sitting the control connected the 
flower with Prometheus. He was told that this was wrong, 
and the following day connected it with Anchises's funeral. 
Again he was told that it was wrong, and when he said the 
flower was a lily, was told that that, also, was wrong. Then, 
after a week's thought, he gave the word, ' Hyacinthus,' spon- 
taneously. 

" What happened during that week ? What inherent im- 
probability is there in assuming that Mrs. Piper had once 
known the story of Hyacinthus, and that the repeated prod- 
dings had finally aroused the dormant memories ? " 

392 



APPENDIX 

These sittings swarm with favourable interpretations of 
ambiguities, and help and suggestion from Mr. Dorr, who 
constantly offers explanations of disjointed words and phrases 
as answers to questions he had previously asked. For instance, 
in one sitting Mr. Dorr gives the word, " Aphrodite," and asks 
if it recalls anything, to which the hand responds, " Queen. 
Verdure. Yes — Light — no, am thinking of Proserpine. 
Aphrodite. Juno's child. Goddess. (But scratches this out.) 
Niobe-Water Drowned." Here Mr. Dorr interrupts, showing 
that these are all wrong, and tells him to leave this now. 
Then the control continues, " Yes, I know, beautiful. Beau- 
tiful." 

Mr. Dorr approves this and tells him he has given the 
answer, but if Mr. Dorr had said nothing, would the control 
not have continued his fishing? Why should this one chance 
hit be considered so remarkable after all the previous misses? 

And so we might continue through the many details, but 
we should find only the same methods everywhere, the control 
being given every possible favourable interpretation, his inter- 
jected words and phrases supplied with setting, and so on. 

To sum up briefly, then, the cross-correspondences and the 
translations of Latin are defective evidentially, especially in 
the following respects: 

1. No real proof has been supplied that Mrs. Piper her- 
self may not have in the depths of her sub-conscious self 
sufficient classical knowledge to give the allusions of the sit- 
tings; or, if not that, no proof has yet been adduced to show 
that memories of the trance can never appear as spontaneous 
ideas in the normal state and lead to the gaining of informa- 
tion about them. 

2. No words or phrases can be considered evidential of 
knowledge on the part of the control when the sitter explains 
and gives them settings. Whenever disjointed words occur 
in a sitting, they are valueless until the control himself takes 
them up spontaneously and explains them. 

3. The experimenters in this field ignore the association 
of ideas, especially in two directions: 

(a) They do not seem to appreciate how much similarity 
exists between many Latin words and their English equiv- 
28 393 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

alents, and how relatively easy it would be, under their con- 
ditions of sympathetic interpretation and aid, for any person 
totally ignorant of the language to reach some idea of the 
meaning of a given passage. 

(b) Still less do they seem to appreciate how impossible it 
is to lay down any law of probabilities as to a given idea being 
in the minds of any two given people within a given length 
of time. As far as our definite knowledge does go, it shows 
that we have many more common ideas than has been sup- 
posed, and creates the presumption that people of similar 
interests and education would have very many common ideas. 
This presumption, combined with the highly ambiguous and 
far fetched character of many of the cross-correspondences, 
renders the assumption of a communicating spirit to account 
for them at least somewhat premature. We have very far to 
go in the studying of normal associations before naturalistic 
explanations can be exhausted and a supernaturalistic one 
so much as be considered desirable. 



II 



The following list gives in the first row the word chosen for 
the test; in the second, the reactions in the trance state, and 
in the third, the reactions after the trance. The numbers after 
this list indicate the number of seconds before the reaction. 
These are all enormously lengthened, since Mrs. Piper was 
still rather sleepy, the average reaction time for free associations 
being usually estimated at only 1.5-2.5 seconds. 



Test Word. 


Control. 


Normal. 




1. boy 





brother 


(1) 


2. cat 


mew 


trap 


(5) 


3. man 


woman 


woman 


(6) 


4. wife 


husband 


child 


(16) 


5. baby 


mother 


child 


(9) 


6. cradle 


top 


rocking 


(6) 


7. creep 


walk 


walk 


m 


8. chloroform 


ether 


insensible 


(17) 


9. fur 


coat 


furrier 


(8) 


10. cape 


hat 


hood 


(7) 


11. sick 


well 


morbid 


(8) 


12. surgeon 


doctor 


nurse 


(12) 


13. sweep 


clean 


sweeping 


(4) 


14. wash 


iron 


laundry 


(6) 


15. hair 


comb 


head 


(5) 


16. nurse 


doctor 


ill 


(9) 


17. cuffs 


button 


arm 


(5) 


18. tumour 


cancer 


disease 


(4) 


19. knife 


rancour ? 


fork 


(4) 


20. table 


chair 


book 


(9) 


21. write 


wrong 


pencil 


(7) 


22. scar 


burn 


cut 


(18) 




(Nothing. 


Laugh. " Let me see. 


") 




395 







STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 



Test Word. 


Control. 


Normal. 




23. milk 


water 


drink 


(8) 


24. spirit 


angel 


dead 


(29) 




(Laugh. Spirit laughs slow. " 


Spirit 




is a good subject.") 




25. ghost 


spook 


ghostly 


(7) 


26. Myers 


heaven 


England 
(Hodgson.) 


(7) 


27. Easter 


cross 


Sunday 


(8) 


28. Latin 


Greek 


college 


(10) 


29. priest 


clergyman 


bishop 


(3) 


(Pause.) 








30. doctor 




nurse 


(8) 


31. party 


dancing 


gathering 


(12) 


(Repetition.) 








32. call 


going 


bell 


(10) 


(Pause.) 








33. present 


absent 


gift 


(7) 


34. sex 


abuse? corse? 




(25) 



35. shop 



("Not a thought"; Given up.) 
blacksmith 



(10) 



(Note. — With the control No. 36 was given before No. 35 and 

just after No. 34.) 
36. Christmas box in play Christ (2) 

(Quite a long pause and slow writing.) 
(Note. — A second No. 36 given to the control which seems to 
be Sunday.) 

doe 
bee 

Hand w 
courtinj 
wasp 
cat 
hen 
union 
. Repetit 
insomni 
Pause.) 

396 



37. 


dear 


doe 




running (4) 


38. 


honey 


bee 




hive (7) 




(Repetition. 


Hand writes what.) 




39. 


court 


courting 




house (11) 


40. 


snake 


wasp 




spider (6) 


41. 


mouse 


cat 




mouse-trap (7) 


42. 


egg 


hen 




breakfast (8) 


43. 


marriage 


union 




"Doesn't come." 




(Long pause. 


Repetition. 


" Spell 


it.") 


44. 


sleep 

(Repetition. 


insomnia 
Pause.) 




bed (6) 



APPENDIX 



Test Word. Control. Normal. 

(Note. — With the control No. 45 was given before No. 44 and 
just after No. 43.) 



45. death 



life 



(Idea came but was 
lost immediately.) 



46. dream 


wandering 






(Pause.) 








47. wake 








(Repetition. 


Pause.) 






48. snore 


sleep 






49. bed 


lie 


dead 


(6) 


50. cut 


wound 






51. bandage 


untie 


accident 


(9) 


52. Hyslop 


James 


psychical research 








(4) 


53. James 


weeping or creeping 


professor 


(4) 


(Pause. Slo 


w writing.) 






54. walk 


run 

(" That's funny."; 


automobile 
1 


(8) 


55. tie 


untie 




(9) 


56. diamond 


ruby 


mine 


(7) 


57. Dorr 


Hello, George 


door 


(9) 


58. Hall 




assembly 


(6) 


(Pause.) 








59. eyes 


ears 


glasses 




60. ring 


hand 


bell 


(4) 


61. red 


Reding 


book 


(4) 


62. green 


black 


blue 


(8) 


63. wedding 


feasting 




(14) 


(Repetition. 


Pause.) 






64. daughter 


son 


sister 


(4) 


65. medicine 


hospital 


chest 


(3) 


66. love 


glory 


marriage 


(4) 


(Slow.) 








67. lamb 


horse 


sheep 


(3) 


68. kiss 


shake 








(" Mr. Dorr's asleep." No reaction.) 




397 







STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 



Test Word. Control. 


Normal. 




69. lie truth 


lying 


(6) 


70. Moses Aaron 


commandments 


(8) 


(Slow.) 






71. Lodge science 


Oliver 


(17) 


(Repetition. Slow.) 


(Dr. Hall says no 




hurry.) 




72. dance joy 




(8) 


73. book wake 


read 


(3) 


(Pause. Slow.) 






74. trance dance 


sleep 


(3) 


75. music playing 




(8) 


76. think 


thinking 


(4) 


77. dress down 





(10) 


(Pause. Repetition. Slow.) 






78. hot head 


breath 


(8) 


(Repetition. Slow.) 






79. shoe foot 


foot 


(3) 


80. finger band 


hand 


(3) 


(Repetition.) 






81. figure 




(7) 


82. read book 


book 


(2) 


83. test testing 




(9) 


84. mask artist festival 


face 


(3) 


(Pause. Slow.) 






85. lips face 





(5) 


(Repetition. Spelling.) 






86. teeth mouth 


dentist 


(3) 


(Repetition.) 






87. organs heart 




(7) 


(Pause. Slow.) 






88. stomach back 


head 


(3) 


89. pain ache 





(9) 


90. home houses 


country 


(6) 


(Spell. Slow.) 






91. mother father 


father 


(5) 


92. divorce bad 


separation 


(5) 


93. church Lord 


steeple 


(4) 


(Pause.) 


"Isn't that funny?" 



398 



APPENDIX 



94. 

95. 
96. 
97. 



100. 

101. 

102. 
103. 
104. 
105. 



106. 
107. 
108. 
109. 
110. 

111. 
112. 

113. 
114. 

115. 
116. 



Test Word. 
smoke 

(Repetition, 
fire 

funeral 
grave 

blood 

Repetition, 
kill 

(Pause.) 
toilet 

(Repetition, 
fear 

(Repetition, 
angry 
jealous 
awake 
cruel 



poor 

money 

servant 

God 

medium 

(Repetition. 



Control. 
fire 

Pause.) 
burn 
cortege 
clay 



Normal. 



burn 



(10) 



water 

Spelling, 
horrible 



Pause.) 








(9) 


death 




(8) 


(Image 


of 


flow- 


ers.) 




(8) 
(9) 

C91 



Spelling, 
harm 

peace 
no use 
good-day 
bad 



splendid 

fault 

good 

amen 

Piper 

Spelling. 



towel (9) 

Slowest of the writing.) 

run (5) 



vexed 


(7) 




0) 


morning 


(10) 


sword 


(6) 


(Said it as ii 


' em- 


barrassed.) 




mean 


(9) 


pocket 


CD 


help 


(2) 


heaven 


(3) 




(13) 



Repetition.) 



honest 

(Spell, 
swoon 
limb 



good 
Repetition.) 
faint 
tree 



honesty 

faint 
back 



(Repetition. Spell. Slow.) 
Annie Horace 

Eva my sister 



(4) 

(4) 
(6) 

(6) 
(6) 



Let us examine these with some care. In the group of words 
with possible sex reference there are nineteen words. Of these 
nineteen, but five — sex, marriage, wedding, man, and divorce — 

399 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

could not fail to have sex reference. All the others, fourteen 
in number, might have other references, and most of them 
might have several others. Nevertheless, ten of them are given 
as sex reference, or there is no reaction or a pause. We should 
expect the reaction to sex to be slow in the normal state at 
least, but why should there be no reactions to such words as 
lips, figure, dress, unless there is some strong and suppressed 
undercurrent of feeling? 

It is also very noticeable that out of these fourteen sex 
references made in the normal state, thirteen are also given in 
the trance, and one not given in the normal as referring to 
sex is in the trance. That is, the sex references in the two 
states are nearly identical as to the test words. But in the 
trance, reactions are given in every case, while in the normal 
no associations are given in ten cases, Mrs. Piper saying that 
no word would come. In many of the trance reactions the 
word given is not one referring to sex, but the hand paused 
before writing, showing a lengthened reaction. This pause 
occurred in eight cases, some of them long pauses. 

The group of words relating to operations is not so signifi- 
cant. In five instances the normal reaction is either slow or 
not given, while in seven it was given quickly. It is interest- 
ing to notice here that tumour, which referred most directly 
to Mrs. Piper's own experience, had a quick reaction, while 
the words chloroform, scar, cut, and pain, referring to the feel- 
ing side of the experience, had the longest reactions or none at 
all. One can hardly doubt that the words cut and scar called 
up in her mind the cut and scar of the operation, and that the 
reaction of eighteen seconds to scar, and of none at all to cut, 
was because she did not wish to refer to them before strangers. 
Again, the seventeen-second reaction to chloroform — insensible 
— may show the abhorrence she had to being etherised. 

The few words relating to tragedy, blood, and kill, gave no 
reactions in the normal, but in the trance blood called out 
water, and kill, horrible. Death also gave a superficial reac- 
tion in the control and no reaction in the normal, and seems 
to have upset the reactions for the three following words, the 
reaction to the fourth, which was bed, being dead, and the fifth 
giving no reaction. That is, not only was no association given 

400 



APPENDIX 

for death, but the effect of the word seems to have persisted 
for the five following words. The word spirit also ought to 
be grouped here, since the reaction to it was the longest of any 
in the list, twenty-nine seconds, and was death. But, again, 
it is noticeable that in the trance neither death nor spirit had 
even a lengthened reaction, but that blood and kill did. 

We would naturally assume that the trance reactions express 
the more fundamental and subconscious feelings, and would 
infer from the trance and normal reactions both that Mrs. 
Piper has at some time had a shock connected with killing and 
blood. It may be that to her these words are connected with 
the operation, but against this we have the indifferent reactions 
to many of the words bearing on the operation. 

Death and spirit, which were such disturbing words to the 
normal, call out a quick but superficial — that is, synonymous — 
reaction in the control, and the reactions to women's occupa- 
tions show no characteristically masculine ones, save perhaps 
in the one to cuff. We may dismiss entirely, I think, the idea 
that the Hodgson control's masculinity is anything more than 
superficial. 

In both the control and normal we find a decided tendency 
to superficial reactions just after a suppressed or delayed one. 
This is especially noticeable in the normal, in nine cases of 
purely phonic reactions, such as sweep, sweeping, of which all 
but one came after a delayed or suppressed reaction. The one 
exception was Dorr, door, which pun Mrs. Piper had probably 
heard before. 

That is, to sum up, we find that sex ideas cause delayed and 
suppressed reactions in the normal state and delayed or super- 
ficial ones in the trance; that spirit, medium, sleep, death, and 
surgeon seem also to have emotional complexes connected with 
them. 

It is unnecessary to make many remarks on the avidity 
with which the control took up our imaginary spirits, but the 
boldness with which he invented specific incidents, such as 
the book on Olcott theories and the scar or mole, is interesting, 
and suggests the question which had already come to our mind 
in connection with another medium, namely, whether it is not 
characteristic of this diathesis to have just such vivid, spon- 

401 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

taneous flashes of imagery, whose origin it knows no more than 
we, but which it tends to believe in as veridical, somewhat on 
Descaftes's theory that a clear and distinct idea is true. Such 
a personality, we thought, is likely to have premonitions, vivid 
imagery, strong and unreasonable likes and dislikes, and im- 
pulses to act which control her more or less without her being 
able to explain them. 

For the next sitting, therefore, we prepared another list 
of words, which included most of those considered signifi- 
cant in the first, and added others designed to show eye or 
ear mindedness. 



Test. 


Second Series 


First Series 


Second Series 


First Series 




Control. 


Control. 


Normal. 


Normal. 


1. India 


Calcutta 




Himalaya 


(4) 


2. beer 


drug 




casket on 
a bier 


(6) 


3. cigar 


tobacco 




smoke 


(3) 


4. sweet 


sugar 








5. Botolph 






club 


(3) 


6. bandage 




untie 


hat-band 


(8) accident 


7. plaster 


stick 




bas-relief 


(3) 


8. heal 


foot 




toe 


(2) 


9. operation 


surgery 




lancet 


(4) 


10. die 


death 




diamond 
dyes 


(5) 


11. stomach 


food 


back 


heart 


(2) heal 


12. coffin 


grave 




mummy 


(4) 


13. wreath 


flowers 




laurel 


(4) 


14. pill 


store 




nurse 


(5) 


15. stomach 


bad 




heart 




16. maturate 


( omitted ) 




bite 


(8) 


17. surgeon 


doctor 


doctor 


Dr. Richard- 
son 


(4) nurse 


18. scar 


cut 


burn 




(7) cub 


19. tumour 


disease 


cancer 


boil 


(4) disease 


20. swelling 


green ( ? ) 




accident 


(3) 


21. drug 


(omitted) 




clerk 


(3) 


22. blood 


circulation 


water 


circulate 


(3) 


23. vein 


impossible 




artery 


(2) 


24. marriage 


happiness 


union 


children 


(4) 


25. honeymoon 


journey 




happiness 


(2) 


26. divorce 


bad 


bad 

402 


separation 


(3) separatic 



APPENDIX 



Test. 


Second Series 


First Series 


Second Series 


First Series 


Control. 


Control. 


Normal. 




Normal. 


27. birth 


life 




life 


(3) 




28. widow 


lonely 




death 


(4) 




29. orphans 


children 






(9) 




30. nurse 


doctor 


doctor 


patient 


(3) 


ill 


31. affinity 


two souls ( 


zombined 


Elbert Hub- 
bard 


(6) 




32. sweetheart 


beautiful young girl 


courted 






33. courting 


youth 


court 


ten p.m. 


(9) 


house 


34. kiss 


lips 


shake 








35. love 


(omitted) 


glory 


" love lies 
bleeding " 




marriage 


36. sex 


man. woman coarse 








37. jealous 


disgusting 


no use 




(7) 




38. figure 


image 


(illegible] 


i figure two 


(4) 




39. male 


( omitted ) 










40. dear 


doe 


doe 


running 


(4) 


running 


41. stocking 


foot 




(omitted) 






42. hair 


scalp 


comb 


head 


(2) 


head 


43. limb 


tree 


tree 


foot 


(3) 


back 


44. heart 


stomach 




lung 


(4) 




45. letter 


correspond- 
ence 




postman 


(3) 




46. woman 


mother 




man 


(3) 




47. poor 


rich 


splendid 






mean. A 
Shaker 


48. money 


hat 




travel 






(hesitates) 












49. inspire 


happiness 






(6) 




50. control 


master 




power 


(8) 




51. telepathy 


transference 


wireless te- 












legraphy 


(4) 




52. message 


carrying 






(5) 




53. test 


trial 


testing 




(3) 




54. vision 


optic nerve 










a. green 


black 


white blue black 






6. blue 




red 


white 






c. color 




white 


yellow 






d. music 


playing 


(omitted) playing 


(3) 




c. white 




red 


brown 


(3) 




d. pink 




(omitted) 


carnation 


(7) 




e. tone 




u 


metronome 







403 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 



Second Series First Series Second Series First Series 

Control. Control. Normal. Normal. 



f. tune 




" 1 


. check, 2. check (5) 


g. sound 




<( 








h. yellow 




green 


daisy 


(6) 




t. black 




brown 


dress 






;. spectrum 


(not understood) 


vision 


(6) 




k. grass 




garden 


walk 


(9) 




I. sky 




blue 


cloud 


(2) 




m. light 




sun 


globe 


(6) 




n. sun 






heat 


(2) 




o. organ 




playing 


1. body, 2. 


organ 


i grinder 


p. band 




horn 








q. sweet 




sour 


chocolate 


(3) 




r. loud 




harsh 


soft 


(2) 




s. bang 








(7) 




t. face 




nose 


hair 


(3) 




u. flowers 




roses 


garden 


(2) 




v. odour 




perfume 


chloroform 


(5) 




w. bitter 




taste 


sweet 






x. smell 




scent 


taste 






y. taste 




tongue 


smell 


(2) 




z. touch 




handle 


feel 


(2) 




55. trance 


stupor 


dance 


sleep 


(4) 


sleep 


56. seer 


visionary 






(8) 




57. dream 


sleep 


wandering sleep 


(5) 




58. spook (hand 












calls for 












repetition) 


ghost 




cabinet 


(7) 




59. sleep 


(omitted) 


insomnia 


bed 




bed 


60. daughter 


mother 


son 


son 


(2) 


sister 


61. husband 


friend 




wife 


(4) 




62. moon 


light 




lake 


(5) 





Reaction times were shorter in the waking state of the 
third sitting than in the second, though still much longer than 
normal (1.5-2.5 seconds). This was doubtless due to the fact 
that the waking reactions were given before instead of after 
the trance. In the second sitting the waking reactions were 
all so slow that we considered only reactions of over ten sec- 
onds as above the average, while in the third sitting no reac- 
tion was over nine seconds, and we considered any longer than 
five seconds as delayed. 

404 



APPENDIX 

On this basis, comparing the common words, we find that 
much the same words are reacted to slowly or have no reac- 
tions given, showing that in both cases they touched some 
inhibitory centres. The new words which are reacted to slowly 
or not reacted to can all be connected with one or another of 
the first complexes, so that our first inferences, that these words 
arouse strong emotions, tend to be confirmed. 

We could not, however, follow up these reactions properly 
with a psycho-analysis of Mrs. Piper, and so, while we may 
suspect strong emotional complexes focussing about the groups 
of words described, we are unable to describe those complexes in 
detail, and the chief value of the reactions is in the comparisons 
of the trance and the normal state. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

The following list gives the more important books on the 

psychical phenomena of Spiritism: 

Abbott, D. P., " Behind the Scenes with the Mediums," 1907, 
328 pp. 

(An expose of physical phenomena, such as mate- 
rialisations.) 

Barrett, W. F., " New World of Thought," 1908, 127 pp. 
(A believer's account of Eusapia Palladino.) 

Bennett, E. T., " The Society for Psychical Kesearch, its Eise 
and Progress," 1903. 

Bruce, H. Addington, "The Kiddle of Personality," 1908, 
239 pp. 
(Believes in telepathy, but not in Spiritism.) 

Carrington, Hereward, " The Physical Phenomena of Spir- 
itualism," 426 pp. 

" The Coming Science," L., 389 pp. 

" Eusapia Palladino and her Phenomena," 353 pp. 

(A believer's accounts.) 
Elam marion, Camille, " The Unknown." 

" Mysterious Psychic Eorces," L., 453 pp. 

(Holds that Spiritism is not yet proven, but also not 

unprovable.) 
Gurney, Podmore, and Myers, " Phantasms of the Living," L., 

1886, 2 vols. 

(A large collection of cases. Veridical apparitions 

and telepathy are accepted.) 
Hyslop, James, " Science and a Future Life," 1905, 372 pp. 

" Enigmas of Psychical Kesearch," 1906, 427 pp. 

" Psychical Research and the Resurrection," 1908, 409 pp. 

(Hyslop is an ardent believer. These books for the 
most part restate the sittings with Mrs. Piper.) 

406 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Lodge, Oliver, " Survival of Man," L., 1909, 354 pp. 
" Man and the Universe." 

(Lodge is also a believer.) 
Myers, F. W. H., " Human Personality," 1903, 2 vols. 

(An elaborate argument to prove personal survival 

from the phenomena of Spiritism.) 
Podmore, Frank, "Studies in Psychical Eesearch," 1897, 

354 pp. 

"Modern Spiritualism," 1903, 2 vols. 

" Naturalisation of the Supernatural," 1908, 364 pp. 

" Telepathic Hallucinations, the New View of Ghosts," 

L, 1909, 128 pp. 

(In general these books discredit Spiritism, but argue 
for telepathy.) 

Sage, M., "Mrs. Piper and the Society for Psychical Re- 
search," L., 1903, 187 pp. 

(A somewhat uncritical and inaccurate account of 
the Piper records.) 

Thomas, N. W., " Thought-Transference," L., 1905, 210 pp. 

" Crystal Gazing," L., 1905, 162 pp. 

(Good summaries of the work of the Society for 
Psychical Research on these subjects.) 

Willson, Beckles, " Occultism and Common Sense," L., 291 pp. 
(Argument for Spiritism.) 

Vaschide, N., " Les Hallucinations Telepathiques," Paris, 1908, 
97 pp. 
(Reduction of telepathy to coincident thoughts.) 

Viollet, M., " Le Spiritisme dans ses Rapports avec la Folie," 
Paris, 1908, 120 pp. 

(Showing the parallel between various forms of in- 
sanity and the belief in spirit communication.) 

Miss X. (A. Goodrich Freer), " Essays in Psychical Research," 
L., 1899, 326 pp. 

The original material, however, which must be read by 
any one who wishes to form an independent judgment is con- 
tained in the Proceedings and Journal of the Society 
for Psychical Research, from 1882 to the present time, es- 
pecially the Proceedings, which contain the cases that 

407 



STUDIES IN SPIRITISM 

have stood the Society's tests and are allowed to be pub- 
lished. 

The American Society for Psychical Research also has 

Proceedings (1885-89 and 1907 to the present) and Journal 

(1907 to the present), which should also be read to see the 

character of the evidence accepted by Hyslop. 

The following books deal especially with the questions of 

subconscious selves and alternating personalities: 

Binet, A., " Alterations of Personality," 1896. 

Breuer und Freud, " Studien iiber Hysterie," 1895. 

Freud, Sigmund, "Die Traumdeutung," 1909. 

— — " The Origin and Development of Psycho- Analysis," Am. 
Jour, of Psy., April, 1910. 

(There is as yet very little in English on Freud's 
work, and none of his writings have been translated, 
but they are of great importance for the understand- 
ing of the subconscious activities. The number of 
the Am. Jour, of Psy. just referred to also contains 
summaries of Freud's theory of dreams by E. Jones 
and S. Ferenczi.) 

Flournoy, Th., " From India to the Planet Mars." 

(A very careful study of the origin of the messages 
from a supposed medium, showing them to be sub- 
merged memories.) 

Janet, P., " The Mental State of Hystericals." 

" The Major Symptoms of Hysteria." 

Jastrow, Joseph, " Fact and Fable in Psychology," 1901. 

" The Subconscious," 1906. 

Prince, Morton, " The Dissociation of a Personality," 1906. 

(The case of Miss Beauchamp.) 
B. C. A., " My Life as a Dissociated Personality," 1909, 47 pp. 

(The patient's own account, after a cure.) 
Seybert Commission, "Preliminary Report," 1887. 

(An expose of Spiritism.) 
Sidis, Boris, " The Psychology of Suggestion," 1898. 

" Psycho-pathological Researches," 1907. 

Sidis and Goodhart, "Multiple Personality," 1905, 456 pp. 

(These and Prince's book refer multiple personalities 
to modifications of brain activities.) 

408 

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